The Gamble Of Life - A Kakegurui Story
by GlazzKage
Summary: Hyakkaou Private Academy student Akari Kokoro tries to find fame, fortune, and love through the intense gambling scene. With Yumeko, Mary, and Ryota at her side, she's bound to achieve great things!
1. Chapter 1: Waking Up

My alarm clock blares as I wake up for school. I sigh as I try to get up out of bed as best as I can. My bed is really comfortable so I have a hard time every morning.

Anyway, I put on my uniform for school. It's a red blazer with a white undershirt, in addition to a black skit and black stockings. They even control what shoes we can have: black dress shoes, but those are my indoor shoes, which are located at school already. My outside shoes are a white pair of flats.

I personally think the uniform is super lame. Fortunately, we are allowed to customize our hair, so I usually go all-out on trying to express myself with my hairstyle. My hair is long and brown and goes to my shoulders. I dyed it brown- my hair is actually black, and you can see it in my roots. I tie my hair into cute twin tails and go eat breakfast.

Breakfast is easily my favorite meal of the day, as I'm the best at cooking breakfast foods. I only have to cook for myself, so I save a lot of money cooking. My parents are away on business trips to the US most of the time, and I'm an only child.

I prepare an omelet with ham, cheese, onions, and bell peppers (I don't like spicy peppers). I also make toast with hazelnut spread. I hurry to eat my delicious meal and run to school, eager to meet my friends.


	2. Chapter 2: Hyakkaou Academy

I walk the long road to the glorious Hyakkaou Private Academy. This prestigious school is only for the children of the greatest political and economic figures in all of Japan. My parents are business people- my dad owns Chaitou Electronics and my mom is the CEO of Honami Entertainment. Unfortunately, they're almost always away on business trips so I rarely see them.

I enter the gates of the building and make my way inside. I stop at my locker to take off my outdoor shoes and put on my indoor shoes. My indoor shoes are black flats (I hate the color black but the academy forces me to wear them inside :( ). As soon as I get my binders for my first class I see Yumeko out of the corner of my eye.

Yumeko meets my gaze and is delighted to see me. She is in all of my classes. Yumeko has long, straight hair and adorns the same uniform as me. She's the gambling queen of this academy.

Gambling, you ask? Well, Hyakkaou has a really big gambling ecosystem here. It's something like how us students need to learn the value of money and the be competitive. Because most students are children of really rich families- me included- people often gamble in the order of hundreds of thousands of yen.

Yumeko defeated the former champion of gambling, Mary Saotome, my other friend, on her first day. Mary ended up losing over fifty million yen, but ended up getting it back through the student council. Lucky her! The student council is very ruthless and is the capital of the gambling scene. They're mainly comprised of elite gamblers, with the head of the student council, Kirari Momobami, being the most formidable of them all.

Anyways, back to me. I don't fare too horribly; I'm about average. I usually don't have to reach out of my own pocket in order to pay for the mandatory dues to the student council, but if I lose a ton of money, I'd end up having to reach out of my savings.

Every few weeks or so, every student in Hyakkaou has to pay "donations" to the Student Council. If you fail to make these payments, you become a housepet. You are basically a slave to all of the paying students until you are able to pay the donations. This is what makes the Student Council so ruthless.

Yumeko guides me in her direction. "Let's go to classes," she says, "we need to study for the exam so we have more time to gamble later!"

Yumeko is also pretty crazy. She has a gambling addiction, making her either win or lose millions of yen on any given day. Once, she won 3 billion yen on a single day, as well as the life of the former Student Council Accountant, Kaede Manyuda. I was so surprised when I heard about it after it had happened.

We head over to class, and I went to see who was inside, I saw none other than Mary Saotome, my Hyakkaou Academy crush.


	3. Chapter 3: Mary Saotome

Mary Saotome is my crush at Hyakkaou Academy (yes, I'm lesbian, deal with it). She has long, yellow twin tails (it's the reason I got twin tails). I'm pretty sure she's bi because I think she likes Yumeko and Ryota. Ryota is horrible at gambling and relies on Yumeko for financial support. I hate Ryota because he's trying to take my Mary away!

Mary is probably the second best gambler at Hyakkaou Academy. She tried to gamble against Yumeko on Yumeko's first day of school, but Mary lost about 9 million yen. Then, she tried to get back her winnings from a student council member, and lost another 40 million yen. She ended up getting all of that money back, but it was a really humbling moment for her. She is secretly very jealous of Yumeko for stealing her spotlight.

"It's time to start class, everyone," the teacher says as she walks in. None of us really care about school because we all have really good tutors, but we sit down anyway. I'm really good at school, mainly to impress Saotome. I turn to the left to take a look at her, and I couldn't help but notice her pastel pink nails. She must have gotten them done yesterday. Uh oh! She catches me staring at her.

"What are you looking at!", she snarled at me. She's such a tsundere!

"Nothing, nothing," I reply, "I just like your nails- that's all."

She blushes. "Uh... thanks, I guess," she responds, shyly. "I got them done yesterday." Bingo!

I try to pay attention to class, but couldn't help wondering what gambling escapades I'll participate in today. I hope I'll get to play with Yumeko and Mary. It's always fun if I'm playing with them!


	4. Chapter 4: The Library

Class finally ends after what seems like forever. I hurriedly get out of my seat and gather my things.

"Akari! Where are you going?" Mary asks.

"I'm tired of school, so I'm going to gamble!" I respond. "Would you like to go with me?"

After a long period of contemplation, Mary agrees. "Fine, I'll go. I'm kinda short on money, so I'll bet small."

"Yay!"

Yumeko joins us as we make our way to one of the largest gambling hotspots: the library. Suzui doesn't go because he's a chicken.

On our way to the library, we see Midari Ikishima and her powerful posse. She is the Student Council Beautification Chair, whatever that means. She's even crazier than Yumeko, although the two are quite similar. Despite their similarities, Yumeko hates Ikishima. I hate her too because she glorifies self harm.

"Hey, Yumeko," Ikishima snarls with ther nasally tone, "wanna gamble with me today?"

"No way, Ikishima!" Yumeko exclaims. "You just want to hurt yourself!"

"That may be true," Ikishima returns, "but why not make it a little more fun?"

Yumeko turns away and heads over to the library. I give Ikishima a mean look as I follow her. Ikishima growls and walks away.

We finally make it to the library. Inside the library, we see so many students gambling. Roulette tables, poker tables, card tables, so many tables! The clink of chips rattle throughout the space. The students effectively turned the library into the casino. There aren't even any books in the library- just gambling tables.

We make our way to a table. A relatively worse off student appears to be the dealer. She announces that the game at this table is blackjack. This is my favorite game!

I understand why the student chose this game. Blackjack gives a slight edge to the dealer, so she's bound to make quite a bit of money by the end of the day. Little does she know, I'm quite good at blackjack.

It's time to bet. Mary and I set out 10,000 yen as bets, while Yumeko sets out 100,000. At this sum, the student gasps and is quite nervous. I don't think she has the money to pay Yumeko if she wins.

I turn over my cards. This gambling battle has begun!


	5. Chapter 5: The Gambling Battle

I look at my cards gingerly. I see that I have a King and a 9, totaling 19. That's really good, especially considering the dealer has a 7 showing, implying that she most likely has a 17. I silently cheer and put my cards down on the table. I am going to stay.

Mary reveals that she has an 18 and that she's going to stay. I confidently announce that I am going to stay. Yumeko reveals she has a 15. I cringe inwardly, knowing that 15 is a very bad hand to have. She asks for another card, hoping her total reaches as close to 21 without going over.

The dealer slides Yumeko a card and she picks it up. It is a queen! I sigh. She went over 21, meaning she lost her bet of 100,000 yen.

The dealer tries to contain her excitement as she reveals her cards. She has a 17. This means Mary and I won 10,000 yen each, and Yumeko lost 100,000 yen.

We get handed our chips as the dealer smiles. She is obviously very excited about the net 80,000 yen profit she just achieved. Her brown hair bobs up and down as she moves along the table, handing us our chips. Yumeko, not surprisingly, isn't bothered too much about this loss. 100,000 yen is meaningless to her. I wish I can have as much money as she has.

The next hand begins. Mary and I both put 15,000 yen. I learned all of my gambling strategies from Mary throughout the school year and it really helped me win quite a sum of money. Yumeko grins as she puts down 200,000 yen. It's obvious she's trying to win back her sum.

The dealer is shocked by this amount. I have know idea why she would be, though. Yumeko is one of the most popular students in the school and is known for her large bets.

"Th-the table maximum is 500,000 yen, just so you know," the dealer sheepishly explains to us. This is obviously meant for Yumeko.

"How boring. I'll try to make the most of it, though," Yumeko says in return.

My cards are a king and an ace. It's a blackjack. I exclaim happily as I throw down my cards. Because blackjack easy 3:2, the dealer owes me 22,500 yen. She groans as she hands me to chips.

Saotome grunts as she reveals her cards. The total is a 16. She asks to stay, hoping that the dealer busts and that all of the players win money.

Yumeko has an 18 and asks to stay. That hand isn't too bad, but definitely not something I'd bet 200,000 yen on.

The dealer's cards are shown. To Mary's and Yumeko's dismay, she had a 20! they both lost.

The dealer enthusiastically collects the chips of Mary and Yumeko. It is obvious that she is getting cocky. At this point, Mary lost 5,000 yen, I won 32,500 yen, and Yumeko lost 300,000 yen.

On the next hand, I put down 5,000 yen. I'm very satisfied with my earnings, so if I lose this round it won't be too bad. Mary puts down 10,000 yen.

Yumeko hesitates. "Dealer, are we allowed to double down on our hand if it goes past the maximum bet?"

"I don't see why not," the dealer returns inquisitively.

Yumeko smiles at this, as she announces that she will bet 500,000 yen.


	6. Chapter 6: The Gambling Battle, Part 2

The dealer is staring in horror at the sum of chips in the pile. Each chip is worth 10,000 yen, so the resulting pile has five stacks on ten black and red chips, neatly arranged in pillars.

I whisper to Mary, "do you think she's going to double-down on that?"

"It depends," Mary responds, "I highly doubt she'll do it if her hand is trash."

"You're right."

After her stupor ends, the dealer gives us our cards. I have a 14. Not a great hand at all. Mary asks for another card, she reveals that she now has an 18 and stands. I sheepishly ask for a card, bracing for an eventual bust, but I instead get a sum of 17. I sigh as I announce I stand.

Yumeko shows that she has an 11, a perfect hand for a double down. The dealer's face goes pale. Like clockwork, Yumeko asks for a double down.

The dealer looks like she already admitted defeat. She hands her a card, face down. Yumeko is not allowed to look at the card, and she isn't allowed to ask for another card. She asks to borrow 50 more 10,000 yen chips and she places them all down on the table, in a pattern similar to her first pile.

The cards are flipped. The dealer has a 17. I tied with the dealer, meaning I don't win or lose any money. Mary cheers as she collects her money from the dealer.

It is now Yumeko's turn to flip her card over. A sizable crowd has formed around us. I could see Ryota fighting for a spot to see Yumeko and her outcome. This is the highest bet I've seen anyone make in a couple of days.

As she flips the card, I could barely watch. I cover my eyes, hoping to gain the result from the boos or cheers of the crowd. As I heard the intense cheering form from the crowd, I knew Yumeko won the game.

As I peeked at her card, I gasp. Her card was an 8! She got a 19 and won 1 million yen!


	7. Chapter 7: Shinoki Ramen

Yumeko exclaims in happiness at her good fortune while Mary and I stare at the result. I look over to find that the dealer is just standing there as well, with a pallid expression of despondency on her face.

Expressionless, she pushes her a hundred 10,000 yen chips. In addition, she gives Mary one 10,000 yen chip.

"The game is over. Thank you for playing," she said expressionlessly. She walks to the hallway and leaves.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the dealer as Yumeko was explaining how lucky she was to her crowd of fans. We all got up and left the library. We meet up with Ryota and talk about our winnings.

"Man, Suzui-kun," Mary smiled at him, "you should've gambled with us. It worked out in the end!"

"I don't know about that, Saotome," Suzui responded, "I'm not very good at gambling at all." Ryota has shaggy brown hair and wears the male school uniform. The uniform for men is the same as for women, except for black dress pants instead of a skirt.

"Anyways, where should we go for dinner?" Yumeko asked. "I'm starving!"

"Ooh! There's that new ramen place down the street from here that just opened up. Let's go there!" I respond. I heard good things about that place.

"Sorry guys, that place is too expensive for me," Ryota confessed. "Money's tight with all of the student council payments."

"Don't worry about it, Ryota!" Yumeko says to him. "I'll pay for you!"

"Ah thanks, Yumeko!" Suzui made a bowing motion to her.

We grab our things and we head over to the ramen place. There is a large sign on top that reads "Shinoki Ramen." The building is in a traditional Japanese style. We head inside and order our ramen bowls. We all get the same thing because we've never been here before: A large ramen bowl with beef, onion, eggs, and garlic, with firm noodles.

We get our meal and we chow down. It is so good! The flavor profile is so well balanced, and the garlic and onions gives it a kick.

We drink the remaining broth from the bowl and get the checks. I groan as I see that the meal was 2,000 yen, including tip. I can see why Ryota had reservations about coming here. I don't think too much of it too much, though, considering how I won over 30,000 yen at school today.

After we pay, we leave the store and say goodbye to each other. I live in the opposite direction as the other three, so I had to say goodbye to all of them. When I get home, I take off my school uniform and put on my pajamas. I don't have any homework and I'm full from the ramen, so I decide to go to bed early. My pajamas are a pastel blue t-shirt with a cat on them and grey sweatpants. I brush my teeth, floss, and gurgle some mouthwash.

As I crawl into bed, I think about the events of today. I hope that the future fares well for the dealer we took all her money from. As I fall asleep, I can't help from thinking of how her bangs drooped from her pale complexion as she walked out of school. Hyakkaou certainly isn't kind to everyone, and I hold this thought in my mind as I drift into a deep slumber.


	8. Chapter 8: The Lunchroom

I wake up to the sound of my alarm once again as I remove myself from my bed. Although I slept quite soundly, it was occupied by a terrible nightmare. I imagined the dealer from yesterday, bound in chains, with Kirari Momobami poking at her with a red hot pitchfork. It was awful. I have no idea why this awful dream occurred. I have seen plenty of spirits crushed by the weight of their debts before. For example, Kaede Manyuda fell into 10 billion yen in debt, primarily at the hands of Yumeko Jabami. I have no idea why she was so haunting compared to the others.

I brush my teeth and cook breakfast. Today I make blueberry pancakes with butter toast. I scarf it down and grab my items for school.

When I get to school I am greeted by Yumeko Jabami once again. She seems happy to see me, and I try to return that sentiment. For some reason, I don't feel to great about being friends with her. I curse my inability to pinpoint the reason of this disdain for Yumeko. It's not Yumeko's fault that lady lost her money. She agreed to gamble! This reasoning managed to subside most of my internal quarrels about this whole situation.

Class goes by uneventfully. We have science and math in the morning, and those are my favorite subjects, so I wasn't exactly bored out of my mind. Saotome and I competed to see how many of the teacher's questions we could answer correctly before lunchtime. Saotome won with 12 questions answered, whereas I only had 10.

Before I know it, it's lunchtime. Lunch is an hour at Hyakkaou, making it a great time to gamble in between classes. The lunchroom is ginormous, with balconies in the second floor surrounding the first floor, which was the main area with the tables. The students of Hyakkaou, of course, turned this place into a mini-casino.

This would be what my friends and I would do on a normal day, but what is happening instead fills me with dread for that poor, poor dealer girl. When I walk into the lunchroom, I see none other than the entire Student Council, with a banner that says "**DONATION DAY**" with large black letters.


	9. Chapter 9: The Donation Day

I get a deep pit in my stomach as I look for that dealer girl. I see her in the front of the line to donate. She is explaining her current situation to the Student Council, but I can't quite hear it. Kirari sighs and looks at her like how someone would look at a dying puppy. She gives her a pat on the shoulder and asks for the next person loudly.

I can't believe donation day is the day after that match. All suppressed feelings of sorrow for her return. I feel so bad for her. If she held off poverty for one more day, she would've been able to keep her status as a non-house pet.

Eventually, it's my turn to pay up. Typically, you need about 100,000 yen in order to avoid being a housepet, but it varies every time they ask for donations. It's really the bottom 100 donors that receive the house pet status, but that threshold is usually around 100,000 yen.

They have a credit card reader and a cash register. I don't like carrying cash around wherever I go, so I have a debit card. I pay 110,000 yen using the electronic card system. I sigh as I realize that a good third of this money could have gone to the poor dealer who lost it all going against Yumeko Jabami. If it wasn't for her, I would've had to pay about 20,000 yen out of my own pocket. Unfortunately, the dealer already had her chance to pay up, so it's no use giving any money to her.

My friends and I get lunch after we pay our dues. Yumeko gave Ryota 110,000 yen to pay as a donation for some reason. I have no idea what is so special about that boy. They aren't even dating, and it's not like Ryota is doing any favors for her.

I go to the lunch line. Today, we're having sushi rolls with rice and wasabi, although I could barely eat. This system is sick. Why do we have to fight to survive? Why do so many people have to wonder whether they will become sub-human or not. Despite me wanting to know the answers, the answers to this question remain a mystery.


	10. Chapter 10: Grievances

I return to my classroom to finish out the school day. We have Japanese, English, and Economics to finish out the school day. I like these classes less than my other ones, so I am mostly left to my own musings. Throughout the classes, I wrote a list of grievances that I have against the student council. I kept the list in my backpack once class ended.

The list of grievances is as follows:

**1\. **The unfair treatment of lower class students is unfair and unethical.

**2\. **The centralized nature of the student council leads way to tyranny and subjugation of the student body.

**3\. **The extensive outreach of Hyakkaou academy, combined with grievance 1, effectively enslaves these students to financial ruin.

I grimace at the words on the paper. Why should I have to even write them down? When I saw what was happening around me, I knew what must be done. I look over the library with rage. Mary walks up to me.

"Arika, what's wrong?" Mary asks.

"I hate this system," I reply. "I hate how the weak are exploited at the strong's expense. Why can't we be a normal school?

This alights something in Mary I have never seen before. It's like she just remembered her true purpose after being here for so long.

"You're right, Arika," Mary responds. "When I was freed from being a house pet, I had the exact same idea in mind. Curse me for forgetting my true goals."

We look at each other tenderly. Without the context, it would have been romantic. However, I know what a must say to her next.

"Mary"

"Yes, Arika"

"Let's destroy the student council."

Mary confidently nods as I walk away from her. I feel too sick to gamble today. I walk home, planning my way to defeat the council, step by step.


	11. Chapter 11: The Chain Necklace

I walk into class the next day. I am tired from thinking of plans to destroy the student council. I'm pretty sure I need to take a nap. I'm about to fall asleep at my desk when I notice the telltale sign of someone turning into a housepet: the chain necklace.

You see, when you become a house pet, the student council forces you to wear a necklace around your neck showing that you're an "uncooperative student." As a punishment for being a house pet, you aren't allowed to deny the request of any human (non house pet). This basically puts the house pet in slavery for the rest of the student body to exploit, and, with them being 100 of them in the 3,000 person student body, they aren't uncommon.

The necklace is always on the desk of the student who is required to wear it. Along with the necklace, there are crude and degrading remarks about the future wearer etched into the wooden desk.

I cringe when I realize that the chain necklace is meant for the girl from the blackjack game. She walks into the room to find her desk in the current state that it is. She gasps and holds back tears. The other students notice and start taunting her.

"Hey Mittens! Put on your collar!" exclaimed one student.

"Go fetch me some water afterwards, Mittens!" hollered another.

After a number of teasings from the other class members (Mary, Ryota, and Yumeko were not some of these people), the girl choked back tears as she puts the necklace over her neck. Once you're a house pet, your name is Mittens if you're a girl, and Fido if you're a boy.

Other than that, class starts as normal. The teacher doesn't care enough to notice the girl's new necklace. The teachers don't really care about this whole gambling scene in the first place: they just want to get paid.

I'm not sure what else happened during the morning classes because once I put my head on the desk, I went straight to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12: The Challenge

I wake up with Yumeko poking at my head. I really want to sleep some more, but as I stay at my desk, Yumeko's pokes get harder and harder. Eventually, I have had enough.

"WHAT?" I shout perhaps a little too loudly. Yumeko is taken aback by this outburst. "Ugh. I'm sorry Yumeko, I'm just a bit tired."

"No- I'm sorry for poking your head. I just want to let you know that lunch has started."

"Thanks, Yumeko. Let's sit together."

I sit down at the lunch table to eat. I brought my own lunch today, and, not to brag or anything, I think I outdid myself with lunch.

It's a bento box which steaming hot white rice, sausage octopi, hamburger meat, and snap peas. I gobble up the meal like it's no tomorrow. The mixture of the rice and meat is divine, with both items being steaming hot from my insulated lunchbox. Yumeko and Mary incessantly stare at my lunch and ask for an octopus. I let them have one each, and they agreed with me in the fact that these sausage octopi were octopi from Heaven.

I am close to finishing my lunch when all of a sudden, someone was yelling from the top of the balcony. It was none other than the dealer housepet. She is standing with the Traditional Research Club President, Yuriko Nishinotouin. What she ended up saying afterwards curdled my blood.

"I, Shinohara Amai, will best my opponent, Nishinotouin Yuriko, in a game of five card draw, in which the final winner will recieve ten million yen from the loser. Nishinotouin-san, I use my offical match against you!"

Nishinotouin smiled at this. "Fine, Shinohara-san. I accept your challenge. Give it all you got."

They sat down at the table, where a housepet dealer gives each of them one hundred 100,000 yen chips. She announces:

"Unless either party objects, this game of five card draw has officially begun!"


	13. Chapter 13: The Samurai Attack

The dealer gives five cards to each player. They can swap how many cards they would like in order to get the best hand. Nishinotouin swaps out a 5 of clubs and a 7 of hearts, whereas Shinohara swaps a 2 of hearts and a 3 of clubs.

It is now time to bet. Shinohara bets 5 chips, whereas Nishinotouin bets 10. Shinohara calls.

"It is time to reveal your cards. It's showdown!" The dealer yells.

Nishinotouin has a two pair and Shinohara has a three of a kind.

"Shinohara-san wins ten coins, equaling one million yen!"

General cries of excitement can be heard from the lunchroom. Such hypocrites. Just a few minutes ago they were making her fetch their food and clean their messes.

Shinohara is delighted at this news. She gleefully stands up and makes her way out of the lunchroom with her coins, until she is interrupted by the dealer.

"Where do you think you're going? The game doesn't end until one player runs out of chips. Like I said, the player who loses ten million yen loses the game."

Shinohara argues for quite a while, but to no use. Eventually, she sits back down at the table.

"Round two- begin!"

The dealer passes out cards to Nishinotouin once more, and they swap cards accordingly. Nishinotouin bets 20 chips, and Shinohara calls.

"Each player has finished betting. It's showdown!"

Nishinotouin has a straight, although Shinohara has a flush! Shinohara wins again! I can't believe it- will this lowly house pet defeat such a high ranking member in the gambling scene?

Nishinotouin does not seem concerned. Although she only has 70 chips, Nishinotouin seems as calm as she was in the beginning. She wears a white kimono in flagrant disrepect of the school dress code and uniform policy with a brown haired bun, a typical clothing arrangement such a traditional Japanese woman.

Shinohara, on the other hand, is obviously struggling to contain her excitement. I wouldn't blame her. She has a sixty chip advantage a member of the student council. Something like that doesn't happen every day.

"Now!" says the dealer. "It is time for round three!"


	14. Chapter 14: The Samurai Attack, Part 2

The dealer once more hands out the cards to the two players. Nishinotouin retains a stoic expression, her slit-like eyes allowing no secret tells. Shinohara, on the other hand, is a little too expressive with her face. It's obvious that Shinohara has very little gambling experience compared to Nishinotouin. The two players swapped their desired cards.

"Now. It is once again time to bet!" the dealer shouts, her bangs covering her eyes. Perhaps the dealer has been a housepet for long that she lost her individual identity. She acts like a robot when she announces the victory. She is slave to the student council. I'm rooting for Shinohara to win because she deserves to be freed from the system. I'm rooting for Nishinotouin to lose because she's complacent in this torture.

It is Shinohara's turn to bet first. She confidently bets 25 chips, in which Nishinotouin returns by betting 40 chips. Rallying this, Shinohara bets 55 chips. Then, in a shocking development, Nishinotouin goes all in.

The crowd collectively gasps as Shinohara calls. There is now 14 million yen in the pot. It's almost as if I could see Shinohara cracking under the pressure.

The dealer yells his now catchphrase. "Show... down!"

The two players reveal their cards. My hearts sinks as I look at the result on the TVs in the lunchroom that are broadcasting this game.

Nishinotouin has a four of a kind of threes, whereas Shinohara has a full house of queens and nines.

Shinohara collapses in her seat as the dealer reveals that Nishinotouin has won the hand. Nishinotouin smirks evilly as the announcement is called.

Nishinotouin, a student council member and an elite gambler, has an 8 million yen edge over Nishinotouin.

The next three rounds spelled an end to Shinohara. Each round took away twenty chips away from her with Nishinotouin winning three more times in a row. On the last hand, Shinohara had a three of a kind of tens, where Nishinotouin had a three of a kind of queens.

Shinohara feints as the dealer reads out the result of the game: Shinohara owes a total of 11,100,000 yen in debt to the student council: ten million from the game just played, one million from the allocation of debt from Yumeko to the student council, and one hundred thousand yen to the student council from unpaid donations.

Shinohara is dragged to the nurse as the crowd disperses to go to their next classes. Yumeko, however, sticks around to take a look at the cards more closely.

She takes a look at one of the cards used. She explains to me how there is a pattern clearly visible on the cards that Shinohara probably didn't notice. Nishinotouin was cheating this whole time! I look around to find that Nishinotouin had already left the lunchroom. It is too late. The samurai has left the village in ruins.


	15. Chapter 15: The Gambling Den

After classes end for the day, Mary comes up to me. "I have to show you something important," she says. "I think you'll appreciate it."

We walk through the long maze of hallways. I have only rarely been to this part of this building. This place is typically where the actual books are held. We eventually stop at a room that says "Library Prep Room #2." I've never been here before.

"Well," Mary said with a hopeful attitude, "this might do the trick."

She opens the room up to find a dusty, empty old room filled with books in bookshelves. At the far end of the room is a desk with a single chair. She sits on top of the desk and directs me to survey the place. "Akari, this will be our gambling den."

"Our gambling den?" I ask confusedly. I haven't been familiarized with the term "gambling den" before.

"Back when I was a first year, I opened this as a way to earn extra cash to survive the donation payments. Now, partially due to this very room, I can pay the money asked for by the student council with the interest. I am free from the cycle of suffering that is the student council." She bangs her fists into the desk. "How can I forget my goal! I was supposed to end Kirari's reign of terror!"

"So you're saying we can end up making a ton of money by making this into a casino?"

"That's basically the plan. If we play our cards right, no pun intended, we can turn quite a profit by being bookkeepers. Gambling was made to provide money to the dealer in the first place. If all goes well, too, we can bring others on board to take over some more gambling dens. We'd be swimming in riches!"

"That sounds like a plan, Mary! But wait... how will the student council react to this?"

"If it gets too profitable, the student council might impose room fees. If that happens, we can just simply take over more rooms for a higher profit margin. It's quite simple. You just need to look up some obscure games that can guarantee profit for the dealer and we can get started tomorrow."

"Thank you, Mary. With this information in mind, there's no doubt we can stop the student council!"

I begin to turn around, but stop myself. "Hey Mary, if we're gonna this, we're going to have to make freeing Shinohara our top priority."

Mary sighs. "Akari, that's going to take a while, but if you really want to, that can be our goal."

"Thanks, Mary."


	16. Chapter 16: The Rise of the Den

Slowly but surely, we set up our "home base" for our gambling den. I brought some game ideas and implemented them into different tables so people have different games to play whenever they want. Mary and I ended up hiring Yumeko and Ryota as dealers, who were paid handsomely. It took over 5,000 yen an hour to convince Yumeko to stop gambling after school and gamble at our place. Even then, she only deals every other day. Ryota was more than happy to take the job at 3000 yen an hour, and, considering how he works three hours a day for five days a week, he'd be able to make student council payments if he wanted to.

Of course we weren't hands off when it came to owning and managing the den. We dealt alongside Yumeko and Ryota, and if business was slow, we would count the money we had made over the past few days.

However, the fun couldn't last forever without the student council sticking its nose into things. After a week into business, the Vice President Momobami Ririka demanded a payment of 100,000 yen a week as a "room fee." However, we were able to still make a hefty profit by adding an admissions fee for all players.

After two months, our gambling den rose to immense popularity. We bought out other rooms in order to amass more income. This angered the council quite heavily, so they kept increasing the room fees. Before long, we were paying 500,000 yen per room per week. Despite this, however, we were making profits comparable to individual student council members.

In the hallway in front of the room where this whole operation all started, I look at Mary Saotome. I bow in front of ther and thank her for all that she's done.

"Hey Mary."

"What's the matter, Akari?"

"Remember what I said I wanted to do first? Once we reached 11 million yen in profit?"

"Right. Let's go ahead and do that now."

I load my suitcase with 10,000 dollar banknotes and I walk over to the library, where I know Shinohara will be.


	17. Chapter 17: The Retrieval of Shinohara

Mary and I open the doors to the library to find the usual gambling frenzy. Of course, there are every so slightly fewer people than before becuase of the success of our gambling dens, but there's still a sizable majority of the three thousand Hyakkaou Academy Students who prefer the setup made by the student council. A reason for this is that the library doesn't have an admission fee, so those who don't have as much money often would try to save by going to the library instead.

We look around to find Shinohara. There are so many people in this room with the same red blazer, so it's hard to find Shinohara from her clothes alone. Additionally, most of the hundred house pets are in this room acting as servants to those gambling. They can be seen getting food and drinks for the more well-off students. Mary sighs as she tells me how this is exactly what she used to do to these house pets before she became one herself.

After searching the large and expansive library, we find Shinohara. At this point, she has been a house pet for six weeks. I can see her acting as a foot stool for one of the richest students in the school. I walk up to him and ask if I could "borrow" her.

"Can't you see that I'm using her right now?" He yelled at me. I had a feeling that would happen if I simply went up and asked him.

"Why do you even need her as a footstool anyway?" I returned.

"My knees hurt and I need a stool to rest. She's the most comfortable." His posse of relatively weak gamblers laughed around him.

"Look. I need her for a 'special project.' Can you please let me borrow her for thirty minutes?" I wink at him suggestively.

He seems confused at first, but then gets what I'm trying to say. "Hah! That's a good project for such a cute girl like Mittens. You can take her."

I bring Shinohara out of her feet as we exit the library, quietly apologizing to her as we walk away.


	18. Chapter 18: The Purchase of Shinohara

After we leave the sight of the man we got Shinohara from, I let her go. She asks me what we want from her.

"Hear me out, Shinohara. We have a deal for you. Follow me."

"There's no way I'd ever make a deal with you!" she snapped at me. "You're the reason I Got into this mess in the first place!" She bursts into tears. "I'm supposed to sleep with a business executive tomorrow night. I don't have a choice. If I refuse, I'll get into even more debt. This is all your fault!"

She turns around to run away before I stop her with my hand, grabbing her forcefully by the shoulder. I spin her around. "Last time I checked, house pets aren't allowed to refuse humans. Follow me."

I make sure she follows our lead with Mary behind her until we reach the Book Room #2- the first of our gambling dens. We go inside. Inside the book room I see Yumeko playing a game of Blackjack with three other gamblers.

"Dealer has 21- dealer wins!" Yumeko says.

The entire crowd groans in dissatisfaction. "That hand was worth over 300,000 yen!" cried one of the men. Shinohara, rightfully so, looks at Yumeko menacingly. She's the one who turned her into a house pet.

Mary, Shinohara, and I sit down at a far end of the book room. Business is slow today so there are empty seats. Mary and I sit down at one end of the table and I direct Shinohara to sit down at the other end.

"Look, Shinohara," I say in a calm voice. "We understand how we're partially responsible for your current situation, and I want to truly apologize from the bottom of my heart." Shinohara doesn't respond to this.

"Let's cut to the chase." Mary interjects. "We would like to offer you a job at our gambling dens. You would manage one of the three rooms we have. It won't be easy, but let's just say it would be worth your time."

"How on earth would be worth my time?" Shinohara cried. "Unless you can provide me 11.1 million yen by tomorrow, I'll have to-"

Before she finishes that thought, I slam the suitcase full of money on the table and open it. "This is twelve million yen. If you join us, we'll pay for your freedom and we'll pay for all of your donation payments for as long as you work with us. Do you have a deal?"

Shinohara is at a loss for words. It's similar to when Yumeko won the million yen from her. Tears flood her face as she eagerly nods.

"Great. You start tomorrow. I'll handle the payment to the student council tonight. Show up tomorrow without your necklace. Go home."

"Thank you, Saotome-san. Thank you, Kokoro-san! I will never forget this generosity!" She bows down and thanks us and she runs from the room.

I look over at Mary with a smile on my face. Now that we helped those we have hurt along the way, we can finally go for the student council.


	19. Chapter 19: The Orientation

The very next day, after classes, Shinohara shows up at Book Room #2. She seems vibrant and excited to start working, and she bows down and thanks us for this opportunity. We tell her to not mention it. I show her to the room that she'll be working in.

"This is the Book Room #1. You'll be dealing with Suzui and counting the profits from each hand. You'll add the totals to this spreadsheet that will add the amount to the total, and then you'll put the money in this safe-"

Right before I finish the orientation about her job, a group of teenage girls kick in the door. Shinohara flinches and turns away.

"Hey you!" one of the girls say in a gruff voice. "You're coming with me! It's time to go to your 'slumber party' with Kobayashi-san!" She points to Shinohara and the group of girls around her laugh maniacally. "Hey. Why the hell don't do you have your tag, Mittens! You know that puts you into more debt."

"Knock it off!" I say loudly. The girls seem confused as to why I'm defending Shinohara. "I bought her freedom. You don't control her anymore!"

"Like we totally believe you." they respond, as if they're annoyed at me. "She has 11.1 million yen in debt. There's no way you'd pay that much for someone as useless as her."

Ririka Momobami, the Vice President of the student council, must have heard this commotion and entered the room. "I, as part of the crediting body of Shinohara Amai's former debt, decree that yesterday, Saotome Mary and Kokoro Akari paid the entirety of Shinohara Amai's outstanding debt." Her voice is monotonous due to the voice changer underneath her white comedy mask. "Now please, end this commotion at once."

The girls try to argue with Ririka, but to no avail. They look at me with anger and leave the room.

I finish up the orientation and have her start working with Ryota, with Ryota showing her the ropes. By the end of the day, Shinohara managed to earn over 50,000 yen in a single session- much higher than the average earnings per day in a room that small.

When I come back and congratulate her for a job well done, she hugs me by surprise. "You've turned my life around. I owe you such a debt!"

I, once again, tell her to not worry about it as I close up the book room for the night.


	20. Chapter 20: The Checklist

I enter the classroom the day afterwards. It has been two days since Shinohara has regained her freedom and she already has a group of friends. I put "friends" in massive air quotes because it's not uncommon for those who have bullied a former house pet to start sucking up to one after they have been freed. Once you become a house pet, it is nearly impossible to regain your humanity. Those who bully house pets often assume they will never clear their debt, so they don't have to worry about them ever seeking revenge.

However, I told Shinohara to not seek revenge on those who bullied her. I told her to devote all of her energy in the gambling den in order to get back at the one true villain: the student council. I take a look at the list of grievances in my backpack once more. Although I haven't been able to resolve any of them quite yet, I was able to fix Shinohara's life, which is a win for me. The only reason why I harbored all of these negative sentiments towards the council is because of seeing Shinohara's mistreatment, so I'm glad I reversed that terrible mistake.

I do feel awful raising money by taking it from prospective gamblers, but it is a price I'm willing to pay, quite literally. I estimate that I need 500 million yen until we have enough funds to take on the student council.

While the teacher is talking, I make a checklist of what I need to do before I can claim victory over Hyakkaou Academy.

**1\. **Amass 500 million yen

**2\. **Defeat Nishinotoiuin Yuriko. Her divisive and serpentine cheating strategy must come to an end.

**3\. **Defeat the rest of the low ranking council members

**4\. **Defeat Momobami Ririka, the Vice President of the student council

**5\. **Defeat Momobami Kirari, the President of the student council

With this checklist made, I put it in my backpack while the teacher is still droning on and on about derivatives. I put my head on my desk and take a nap, satisfied that my priorities are in order.


	21. Chapter 21: Lunchroom Musings

After three weeks of having Shinohara as an assistant manager of various peripheral gambling dens, I am proud to say we have made over 100 million yen. Using funds we have made from gambling, we purchased more rooms, tables, and labour. We have hired over twenty people to be designated dealers and counters. The student council, of course, hiked up room fees, but we were still able to create quite a bit of profit.

Of course, the richest students provided the majority of our winnings. A whole day can pass without one of these high rollers entering one of our dens, but once they do, they often bet for millions of yen.

Of course, sometimes the dealer loses the bet, in which much of our progress is erased. However, more often than not, clever sleight of hand often spells us the victor.

Unfortunately, the sum of money we have currently is nowhere near what the student council has in terms of sheer ammunition. Manyuda Kaede, a former student council member, noted how he provided three _billion_ yen to the student council, which he lost to Yumeko. Speaking of which, Yumeko said she is willing to deal for free, although she said she didn't want to make any financial donation. Something about how we need to "earn our money" or something.

In the lunchroom, I sit at the table I usually sit during lunch, eating my bento box while taking a look at the spreadsheet, trying to maximize the profit. Mary is sitting next to me, although she doesn't have that many ideas on how to further expand the profit margin.

"This operation surpassed my old business a long time ago," Mary noted. "I never knew it was even possible to get this big without the student council sticking its nose into things. The former Vice President Juraku must have been especially nosy about big gambling businesses in Hyakkaou."

I was about to give up for the day when a certain individual walked up to me. It was none other than Sumeragi Itsuki- one of the richest students in the academy.


	22. Chapter 22: Sumeragi Itsuki

"So- Kokoro. I heard you were needing some cash to topple the student council?"

Wait a second. How on earth did Sumeragi know about our plans? If this goes to the student council, they're going to shut down our operation!

Let me explain to you who Sumeragi actually is. She was a former student council member when she was a first year, but she was kicked out because she was caught cheating against Yumeko. She ended up becoming friends with Yumeko and gambling with her against Manyuda, where they won three billion yen and the life of Manyuda, worth 10 billion yen. Yumeko took the cash and Sumeragi took Manyuda. Manyuda is often found in the nurses office, still in shock from losing against Sumeragi. I felt bad for him when he lost, but I was glad Yumeko won.

Sumeragi is very short and thin. She has short orange hair with a teal headband. Her eyes are a vibrant blue and she has pink designer nails. She often carries an expensive bag wherever she goes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I respond. Perhaps playing dumb will get me out of trouble.

"It's obvious." Sumeragi replied. "You've controlled a sizable portion of the gambling market, and yet you aren't spending any of it on anything ritzy! You walk to school, you cook your own bento, and you haven't really explained your true intentions. It's obvious that you're hiding something from the student council."

"Fine. You got me. Are you gonna rat me out?" Mary look at me in bewilderment at this statement.

"Why did you tell her?" Mary tells me, with Sumeragi in earshot. Sumeragi laughs hysterically.

"I don't want to rat you out. In fact, I want to do the opposite," Sumeragi responds reassuredly. "I want to buy my way into your council."


	23. Chapter 23: Sumeragi's Offer

I stare at her in shock. She thinks we're a council? I wouldn't really consider us a council, unless we count the original individuals as student council members, which happen to be me, Mary, Yumeko, Ryota, and Shinohara (who wants me to call her Amai from now on). However, I roll with it. If it gets us money, I'm in.

"How much would you pay to be on our council?" I ask with reservation.

"500 million."

I can't help but flinch at this sum. 500 million? How much does she think we make? I obviously want to take up the offer. With this money, we can go against Nishinotouin!

"You have yourself a deal, Sumeragi."

"Wait, Kokoro! I have a condition!" she interjects. "It must be won in a gamble. And the gamble must be against you, Kokoro Akari."

I'm really confused about what she just said. A gamble? I guess I need to prove to her that I'm competent enough to handle her money.

"Kokoro," she says in a calm tone, "I know you've only made about 100 million yen. This is such a good deal. If you win, I'll give you 500 million yen in exchange for an equal share of your 100 million yen operation. If you lose, you give me all of your profits."

She then leans up to me and whispers in my ear. "By the way, you just confirmed your anti-council sentiments. It'd be a shame if somebody were to tell Kirari of your intentions."

Those words sent a shiver down my spine. If my resentment to the student council is made public, I'll be ruined. They'll most likely take down my business and send rob me of all I have. I can't say no to this offer.

"Why do you want to be part of my operation so bad?" I shout.

"Look. You're smart, you're rich, and you're determined. I like those qualities. They remind me of Kirari in a way. I don't doubt your abilities to overtake the council. However, I act in my own interest. If you refuse this offer, I will act in my own interest to sell my information to the student council.

I sigh. I really have no choice in this matter. I take a quick glance at Mary and she shrugs, looking worried and nervous. I tell Sumeragi that we have a deal, and we shake hands.


	24. Chapter 24: The Lunchroom Game

I wake up to the day of the gamble against Sumeragi. This could make or break my preparation for the battle against the student council. Sure, if I lose, it won't be the end of the world. It's only three weeks of cash, and with all of the new rooms that we own, we could get it back in about two weeks, but the longer I wait to begin gambling against the student council, the more money they get from room fees. I pay the student council 10 million yet a week for the six rooms I have. All of those funds are going to be used against me.

I get up, put on my school uniform, and brush my teeth while I'm cooking breakfast again. I have to go find Mary as soon as possible to give me gambling tips. I haven't gambled in a very long time. Managing the gambling the gambling dens has taken all of my time.

I scarf down my breakfast and walk to school. I immediately see Mary and her twin tails. I run up to her and start talking about how I should bet.

After my morning classes, it's lunchtime. This is when the gamble starts, so I make my way to the second floor balcony. Sumeragi and the dealer are waiting for me.

The dealer is the same individual who dealt the game with Nihsinotouin versus Shinohara. Just seeing the face of the dealer gave chills down my spine.

"Today we will be playing Voting Rock Paper Scissors," the dealer announces. On the first floor, I see Mary cover her face in shame. This is the game she tried to cheat on and lost 10 million yen because of it. Back then, such a sum seemed like so much, but now, with the gambling dens, it's quite insignificant.

Voting Rock Paper Scissors is quite different from Rock Paper Scissors. Each spectator drops in either a rock, paper, or scissors of their choosing into a box, and each player has draw three of those cards. You can only play from those cards, so if you don't get a rock, for instance, you can't choose rock. Other than that, standard rock paper scissors rules apply, and whoever wins the round wins the bet for that round.

"Now." says the dealer, "Let Round 1 begin!"


	25. Chapter 25: The Lunchroom Showdown

Everybody in the lunchroom draws a rock, paper, or scissors on their own card as Sumeragi and I begin betting.

We each got 100 coins that are 1 million yen each, and I bet 10 coins to get started. Sumeragi raises to 15 coins, and I call.

After all of the cards have been dropped into the box, the dealer shuffles the cards inside the box and gives the cards to us. I pull my hand out of the box and see that I received three papers. Sumeragi lets out a chuckle.

"What's wrong? Got a bad hand?"

"How did you know?"

"Your face says it all!"

I sigh as I select my card- a paper quite obviously. We throw down our cards and it's both paper.

"The cards are a tie. You will now throw a second card."

We both throw down a second card. Sumeragi had scissors, which means she wins the first round.

"Yay! I won!" she yells. "This will be a piece of cake!"

I groan as I give her my 15 chips. I lost 15 million yet just like that! Shinohara collapsed and had to go to the nurse after losing a sum as large as that. It just goes to show how little small sums of money mean to me now.

"Let Round 2 begin!" the dealer yells. For the sake of time, the same box of cards are used both times.

It's time to bet. Sumeragi bets 20 chips, and I call. Sumeragi really wants to finish quickly for some reason.

We reach into the box and pull out some more cards. This time, it's two rocks and a paper, but what I've noticed is how the cards were creased in different ways. The paper card has a fold that meets 45 degrees with both edges, whereas the rock cards have vertical creases. Was this just a coincidence?

It's time to throw our cards. I select a paper card and Sumeragi selects a card. We both throw down the card at the same time and find that Sumeragi had scissors once again. She wins another 20 chips.

Sumeragi now has 135 chips, and I have 65. I'm losing by a lot, now. If I lose, the student council will collect even more money from me!

"It is time for round 3! Begin!"

I bet 20 chips, and Sumeragi bets 65. Welp, it's all in, I guess.

I do something different this time around. When I receive my cards, I make sure to hide the back of each card so Sumeragi doesn't see the cards I drew. Well, what do you know. I got a scissors, which has a horizontal crease, and two papers, which have 45 degree angle creases. She was looking at the creases on the back of my cards to see what card I was going to pick!

Honestly, I'm not surprised Sumeragi would cheat like this. She cheated Yumeko in almost the same say. She played a memory game with her, but there were patterns on the back of the cards. Yumeko saw these cards and was able to win because of them. I hold back a smile as I think of the ways I'm going to win this.

Sumeragi looks concerned, but can't do anything about it. If she hides her cards as well, it will be proof that she marked the back of them. She selects her card. It's a paper! I grab my scissors as we throw our cards down, and lo and behold, it was a scissors card!

I won 65 million yen! I now have 130 chips, and Sumeragi has 70. This is my chance!

In the next round, I bet 70 coins, and Sumeragi calls.

The next game I do something even more sinister. As I pick out the cards, I bend them in random directions. This way, Sumeragi can't see what type of card it is because there are multiple crease lines on each card! Of course, I note which card is which on her hand, and, just as I expect, I correctly identify her card and counter it.

The crowd in the lunchroom erupts into a cheer. I won 100 million yen! The bell rings for class and the crowd dissipates as I clean up the cards.

"So- you found my trick, Kokoro," Sumeragi said with a smile, "you really do deserve all of that money!"

I look at her with a menacing countenance. "That wasn't cool. Give me the money and you can be on my 'council' or whatever."

"That sounds great! Here you go!"

She claps her hands twice as five house pets bring in suitcases of money and presents them to me.

"Woah woah woah!" I say. "Are these your personal house pets?"

"Yes they are." she responds. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes! The purpose of this council is to disband the house pet system! If you want to join us, you must eliminate their debts and free them!"

"Fine." She reaches into her leather bag and hands a wad of cash to her five house pets plus the dealer. "Oh and by the way, the dealer was my house pet too. She was in on it."

I roll my eyes as the house pets bow to Sumeragi one last time. They all turn around and run over to the student council's office to turn in their payments.

"I hereby decree that Sumeragi Itsuki is a new member of our anti-student council council." I whisper as she grins. "Meet me in Book Room #2 for further details."

I count up the money in the suitcases and go to class. It must have been a sight for the other students to see me carry my bag as well as five opaque identical suitcases to the classroom!


	26. Chapter 26: The Book Room Meeting

After class, I go to Book Room #2 to talk to everyone in our "council," Sumeragi included. When I get there, Sumeragi is already in the room talking with Yumeko, who seems a little annoyed with her for cheating the game.

"Jabami-senpai! I did it to test Kokoro-senpai!"

"Well if you wanted to test her, you shouldn't have done it with real money."

"Well if you wanted to control how I gave her the money, you should've done it yourself!"

I tell them to quiet down. I tell everyone that Sumeragi is officially part of our team, and that we have enough money to fight Nishinotouin.

Everyone cheers at that news. After all, we can finally stop having our main goal be fundraising. However, we still have more to do before we can talk about how to defeat Nishinotouin.

"We aren't done yet," I call to everyone. "What we need to do now is we need to find a way for Nishinotouin to accept our challenge. If we just simply ask her to fight, there's no guarantee she'll say yes."

Shinohara pipes in. "Especially after I lost to her. Everyone in the school knows about how you got me out of debt, Nishinotouin included. If you try to fight her, she'll know you'll be trying to get revenge on her."

"That's right. There has to be some way to get her to gamble with me no matter what."

Ryota, who has been silent until now, interjects into the conversation. "You can become a house pet and use your official match against her!"

I completely forgot about the official match! It's the one right a house pet has. Once someone becomes a house pet, they have the opportunity to gamble with whoever they wish only once, provided that the betting limit isn't too ridiculous, but the student council typically accepts all official matches. Mary used an official match against Nishinotouin once before, Yumeko used her's when she was a house pet on Manyuda, and Shinohara used her's on Nishinotouin.

"Ryota, you're a genius! I'll fail to pay my donation and become a house pet!"

I thank everyone for meeting with me on such short notice. "Everyone, get back to work please. I'll start thinking of ways to beat the student council in more detail. This meeting is dismissed!"


	27. Chapter 27: Transfer of Ownership

"What!?" Ryota yells as I hand him the paperwork transferring ownership of the gambling dens from me to him.

"Take it. Sign your name. I can't have it if I want to be a house pet."

He stares at me in confusion. What part of this does he not understand.

"Look, Ryota. If I miss a donation and I still have the dens under my name, the student council will simply just confiscate the dens. We cant let that happen because not only will I have to wait even longer to become a house pet, we won't be earning any income from the dens confiscated." Of course, he still looks at me in a face of utter bewilderment. "Ugh. Basically, if I give you the dens, and you make your payments on time, the dens won't be taken away. Look, I already had Ririka sign the paperwork for the ownership transfer. Just sign the papers. Once I gamble against Nishinotouin, you'll give me back the dens. Got it now?"

He says he's still confused, but he signs the papers for each pf the dens anyways. "There, I signed your papers. What now?"

"Now, I have no credit for donations. Once I skip the donation day, I'll become a house pet, and I'll challenge Nishinotouin."

"That sounds like a plan. Now let me eat my lunch." I almost forgot to eat my lunch, and there are only twenty minutes of break left before I have to go to class. I scarf down my bento and run over to the student council office.

I knock on the door, and a voice tells me to come in. I walk in and gasp in surprise. Why is Kirari on campus? i remember her saying during lunch yesterday that she'll be gone for the next few days, so we didn't have to worry about donations.

"Have a seat, Kokoro-san," she instructs me.


	28. Chapter 28: The Meeting with Kirari

"Hello, Akari. Please have a seat."

I gingerly close the door and sit down at the seat in front of her. There were two red sofas and a coffee table in between us. The coffee table has an antique teapot and two empty cups. There are also two teabags without labels. Kirari and I are sitting opposite to each other, each of us occupying one sofa.

"Would you like some tea? I have some black leaf if you'd like some."

I accept the offer and she pours hot water from the teabag into the cups. She then dips the two teabags into the cups for about a minute, before handing me the cup.

"Are those the ownership transfer documents for the gambling dens. If I can take them from your hands, I'll be willing to have Sayaka file them for you." Sayaka is the student council secretary, and her main job is to deal with Kirari's paperwork. She despises gambling, so I don't intend on defeating her specifically.

"While you're here, Kokoro-san, let's have a chat. I promise I won't keep you after lunch period, I know you have classes to go to." A chill goes down my spine. Why does Kirari want to talk to me. Has she figured out my plan? I think back to the time we had our meeting. Was there a wiretap in the room. My mind then goes to the slips of paper expressing anti-council sentiment in my backpack. Did someone take the slips of paper out of my backpack to show Kirari? Or, perhaps the most betraying thought of all, was Sumeragi a mole, and, by expressing my wish to destroy the council, expressed my future actions to Kirari. I nervously hold my breath and wait for her to begin the conversation.

"You have gained quite a notoriety here at Hyakkaou Academy. Not only have you voluntarily paid the debts of one of most indebted students, you have managed to revive an old business that we haven't seen in quite a while. I have no idea why no one else tried opening those gambling dens before! I bet Saotome-san helped you with starting that up. She acquired quite a fortune from it last year."

"Y-yeah," I respond with an all-too shaky voice. "I'm really grateful to you too for letting us open in on school property."

"That's no problem, Kokoro-san. We have recieved quite a bit of payments from you for room fees." Her eyes glow a radiant blue as she stares directly into my eyes. "We've probably received over thirty million yen from you alone. That will be great for loaning purposes."

She's trying to intimidate me. What she most likely doesn't know is that I have a lot more money that she thinks I have. I can launch an attack on the student council as soon as next week if I wanted to, and hopefully she doesn't know anything about it.

"Yeah," I respond. "You guys have really been taxing us quite a bit these past few weeks."

"I really do apologize about that, Kokoro-san," she replies cooly. "I'm just trying to create a competitive environment for any other gambling dens that might want to arise. Too bad most people at Hyakkaou are too scared or lazy to start one. You're quite brave, you know."

"Yeah. It was really all Saotome's idea. I heard there were a lot of gambling dens back then."

"You got that right. She took the least popular one from who-ever that girl's name was and used it as her own. I'm pretty sure it was Book Room #2, as well!"

I'm kinda getting scared of what she may say next. Is this really all that she wants to talk about? How lucky I am and why she's taxing me over three million yen a week?

"Anyways," Kirari continues. "It's about time to ask you what I'm truly meaning to talk about." I guess I spoke too soon. "For what reason on Earth are you giving the giving to that Suzui guy?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean, I know he isn't all that rich. He's been a house pet for months before that Jabami character showed up and took a liking to him, so why are you giving him the dens? And I know you aren't selling it to him either, at least not for a reasonable price. There's no way he'd be able to afford the price even the most generous of sellers would list on the market for that entire... operation... you have going on at Book Room #2."

"I just don't really want to manage the dens anymore," I lie candidly. "I think Suzui has the brains to make sound financial decisions, and, all in all, it's my choice either way."

At this Kirari starts laughing like I told her the funniest joke in the world. She takes a sip from her tea as I realize I haven't even touched it yet. As to not look impolite, I swallow a large amount from the cup before Kirari begins talking again.

"I don't get what you see in that boy, but suit yourself. It's not necessarily my business, as long as I get my fees, of course. You're free to go now if you don't have any comments. Don't forget to finish your tea."

I quickly finish the remainder of what's inside of the cup and quickly excuse myself. I don't want to be in that room for a second longer than I had to, plus my afternoon classes are about to start. When I get to my desk, I have no choice but to pay attention to her ramblings about the nuances of history, for I am too nervous to fall asleep today.


	29. Chapter 29: Skipping Donation Day

A week after the meeting with Kirari, I walk into the lunchroom to find the familiar "Donation Day" banner, with Ririka and the other council members sitting at the front table. Each of them have electronic card readers. They really do need to figure out how to accept funds from online.

Of course, with no more dens to my name, all I have to do is simply not pay my donation. I grab my lunch from my bag and sit down, making sure the student council members couldn't see me. I unpack my bento box and start eating. I keep an eye out on the council to make sure they don't start acting suspicious.

As the lunch period wears on, I find that my plan was a success. They don't force me to pay up. If everything goes to plan, they'll record me as having 0 yen paid this period, and they'll put a chain necklace on my desk as soon as tomorrow morning. I sigh as a eat my bento. Being a house pet really sucks, but once I gamble against Nishinotouin and win, I'll make my intentions known, and the rest of the council will be sure to target me.

I hope I'll have enough money to target the student council after the attack against Nishinotouin. I currently have about 700 million yen to my name, and hopefully around 1.5 billion if the attack against Nishinotouin goes well.

Once I finish my lunch, I put the empty box back into my backpack and go to class. Once the bell rings, the student council is almost done processing the 3000 students in the school. They really do work quickly. As I walk out of the lunchroom, I can't help but notice Yomozuki Runa, one of the student council members processing the donations, looking at me with scrutiny. She laughs as she turns to Yumemite Yumemi, a fellow student council member, and starts conversing with her. A chill goes down my spine as I quickly exit the room. Did they find out that I intentionally skipped donation day? As I sit down at my desk, I somehow just now realize that keeping this whole plan a secret may be harder than I initially thought.


	30. Chapter 30: The Life of a House Pet

It worked! When I got to class, I found none other than a chain necklace on my desk, accompanied by an assortment of vague obscenities and threats. The entire class, including Yumeko, Ryota, and Mary, for the purpose of fitting in, cheer me on to put on the necklace. As I put on the necklace in pretend shame, the whole class cheers around me. Someone pours water on me as I sit down. This annoys me greatly, but I have to do what I have to do in order to get to Nishinotouin.

Class goes by uneventfully, although some spitballs were shot at me while I was trying to pay attention. I guess I haven't even noticed how horrible being a house pet was. I have never been a house pet before. Even though I'm a relatively average gambler, I usually just pay out of pocket for my donation payments if times get tough. I usually am able to pay it back through studying up on gambling, but if that goes south, too, I usually just work odd jobs around the neighborhood to make up the money that way. I'm never owe more than 10,000 yen at any given time to the student council.

I guess another reason why I'm being treated so poorly is that I'm the one who used to owe the gambling dens, taking hundreds of millions of yen from the student population in the process. That is the price for having a chance of taking down the student council. That's mainly why I want to start it as soon as possible. I hate having to see people lose their fortunes to me while gambling at a rigged casino. I just want this whole system to end so I don't have to feel bad any more.

Lunch wasn't much better, either. I didn't get the chance to eat, today. Whenever I sit down, some students purposely spill their drinks in order to get me to clean them up. Others often have me buy some food with their cash from the vending machines, and harass me when I get the "wrong" items. With all of this abuse happening towards me, as well as towards the ninety-nine others at any given time, I make my decision. I am going to declare war on the student council today!


	31. Chapter 31: Invasion

(A/N): Special thanks to Mrderp27 for the constructive criticism, and lots of love to my Canadian viewers~~

"Right this way!" says one of the members of the Traditional Research Club. She instructs Mary and I to take off our socks before entering the warmly lit room. The sunset penetrates the room, giving it a wonderful orange glow. Already sat down is Nishinotouin Yuriko.

"Welcome, visitor," she says with a happy expression, her eyes affixed as two slits. Her countenance can be described as joyful yet tranquil.

"Hello, Nishinotouin-san," I reply. "My name is Kokoro Akari."

"I've heard things about you!" Nishinotouin responds. "Come and have a seat. You, too, Saotome-san."

I take a seat on the pillow directly in front of her. Mary sits behind me and to the left, setting her two large suitcases down beside her.

"Let's cut to the chase," I respond. "I-"

"You want to gamble with me?" Nishinotouin interjects. "Well why didn't you say so? I assume those suitcases are proof you have funds to gamble. I'll take your word on it. Are you okay with playing the Traditional Research Club original game?"

Why the hell did I become a housepet?

I look back at Mary and she nods. We've prepared for this game. "Yes. I'm fine with that."

Nishinotouin claps twice. A black-haired girl hastily walks into the room and brings out the game boards. There are two boards and a circle with slits on it. She also brings a large cup with a number of metallic swords.

"Let me explain the game," Nishinotouin announces. I've already heard the rules from Mary, but I listen anyway just to be polite. "This game is like Roulette. Each board has a number from one to thirty for placing chips, and the circular board has slits ranging from one to thirty.

"First, we each decide on the number of chips we'll be playing with in a given round, and then my assistant will throw the swords into the cup and place the cup on the circular board.

"Then, we will place on the numbers corresponding to where the swords will land. What differs from roulette, though, is that the swords can either land face up, which is life, or face down, which is death. If the sword lands on life on a predicted spot, you win thirty times your bet from your opponent, but if it's death, you lose thirty times your but to your opponent. Got it?"

"Yes," I respond. "Let's do this."

"How much are you playing with?"

"700 million."

"That's fine. Kamagusu, please bring us 140 ten-million yen chips."

I interject. "Actually," I respond, "I was wondering if I could play with 700 one-million yen chips."

The assistant, which I now know as Kamagusu, is deeply annoyed at this. "We don't have 700 chips of that type."

Mary opens up the two suitcases to reveal hundreds of chips, each with the distinct "100 man" (A/N: one million yen) on the front.

Kamagusu sighs, "if Lady Nishinotouin accepts this, there is no other reason why this can't be arranged, as long as we make sure that's 700 chips."

Nishinotouin nods at Kamagusu, who gives her seventy ten-million yen chips.

Once inspecting the chips, Kamagusu permits me to stack the chips next to me. I have twenty-three stacks of thirty chips, with an extra ten chips on the side. "Let's use thirty million yen this round," I suggest." Nishinotouin nods in confirmation.

"Now that we got that settled," announces Kamagusu, "let this game begin!"

She throws the swords into the cup and slams it on the circular board. "Betting has now begun! You have ten seconds."


	32. Chapter 32: Invasion, Part 2

"10... 9..."

I hastily grab a stack of chips, knocking another one over, making Nishinotouin laugh. I hide my frustration. If I want to go through my strategy during the time limit to bet, I need to act fast.7

"8... 7... 6..."

I stack a chip on every space on my board. I know it's annoying, but that's a strategy I discovered by practicing with Mary and Yumeko. It's supposed to eliminate all sleight of hand performed by Kamagusu. What Nishinotouin knows is that despite her obvious advantage by using her own game, I have practiced this game for weeks.

"5... 4... 3..."

Nishinotouin furrows her brow in anger, but doesn't respond to my seemingly naïve betting strategy.

"2... 1... zero! No more bets!" Kamagusu notices my bet and looks visibly annoyed. Judging by their reactions, this is either a very rare or a very common occurrence.

"I will now be lifting up the cup." Kamagusu reveals the swords.

"We have Life on 9, Death on 19, Life on 21."

Because we only bet 30 million yen, Nishinotouin only had 3 spots to choose from, and lo and behold, none of her spots were correct. I won sixty million yen from the life predictions, and I lost thirty million yen from the death predictions, with a net gain of thirty million yen!

"Nice job, Kokoro-san," Nishinotouin says in well-hidden sarcasm, as she passes me three ten-million yen chips. "Let's do 90 million for the next round."

I gulp. With 90 million yen on the line, Nishinotouin has a 9/30 chance of making a correct prediction. However, we take turns deciding what to bet, so I agree. I prepare my stacks of three chips per space for when Kamagusu throws the swords in.

"Let the second round begin!" Kamagusu announces as she throws the swords in the pot. Yet again, I only have ten seconds to arrange my bet. Hopefully, luck will be on my side.


	33. Chapter 33: Invasion, Part 3

I put three one-million yen chips on all of the spaces. Kamagusu is clearly angry about this, but Nishinotouin motions her to calm down.

Just as I place the last set of three chips, Kamagusu says the time is up. She lifts the cup.

"Death on 1, 3, 13, and 24."

I freeze. I look at Nishinotouin's board and realize that her board has none of those squares. I just lost 120 million yen.

I give Nishinotouin ninety of the one-million yen chips and three of the ten-million yen chips and ask her if we can use 30 million yen this time.

Kamagusu adds the swords back into the cup and motions us to continue betting. I perform my usual betting strategy, but Kamagusu doesn't seem perturbed by this.

"The time is up. I am revealing the swords. Death on 2 and 10."

This time, both Nishinotouin and I have bets on two, however Nishinotouin had a ten-million yen chip on 10, whereas I had a one-million yen chip on 2 and 10. This totals out to 240 million yen to me. However, I'm not focusing on the money.

"Congratulations, Kokoro-san," Nishinotouin tells me as she hands me 24 ten-million yen chips. "Your strategy is working quite well for you. I believe that puts you at a 150 million yen gain from the start of this match."

"Thank you, Nishinotouin-san." I stare intently at the circular board with the slits. "Hey Kamagusu-san. I was wondering if I could pull the swords out of the slits this time around."

She already removed one of the swords, but says it's fine if I can take the second one out. As I pull the sword out, I can't help but notice a slight resistance while pulling the miniature, metallic sword out of its groove in the board. This resistance is a fair bit greater than the normal gravity of the sword.

"Let's start the next round," Nishinotouin demands. "Let's do 120 million this time."

"I am putting in the swords. You have ten seconds to bet. Let Round 4 begin!"

I put four chips on each space, which no one seems to mind. I barely have enough time to fill all the spaces before Kamagusu tells us to stop betting.

"I am now revealing the swords. Death on 4."

Nishinotouin doesn't have any chips on 4. In fact, I didn't even notice how she had all of her chips on one spot until after the swords were revealed!

I give her twelve ten-million yen chips. That puts me right about where I began, with a total of 730 million yen.

"Nishinotouin-san," I ask, tenderly.

"Yes, Kokoro-san?"

"How can you live with being such a cheating bastard?"


	34. Chapter 34: Invasion, Part 4

"How dare you!" Kamagusu shouts. "Lady Nishinotouin, what do you think of this?"

Nihsinotouin smiles. "I see you have something on your mind. Please elaborate."

"You used your normal trickery the first round," I say with anger. Mary tries to calm me down, but I don't listen. "I placed one chip on every space because I knew there was a preference for certain swords on the board. That's what Yumeko told me." Nishinotouin flinches at the mentioning of Yumeko. "I didn't remember what she said about it, but all I know is that if I bet on every space, I can eliminate that bias."

"Then why are you so angry?" Nishinotouin responds cooly.

"Because you changed your system since Yumeko played," I respond with force. "Once I picked up a sword, it was all too clear. You put a magnet underneath the board!" I point at Kamagusu. "Once you saw me using my strategy, you swapped out the swords that had a magnet that attracted the swords to the death position." Kamagusu hides her face in shame. "If the swords would be more attracted to the death position, I would end up losing money in the long run. It's only a coincidence that you ended up with a net loss."

Nishinotouin doesn't reply for a while, her slits for eyes in a neutral attitude. "So you've found my trick," Nishinotouin responds, "what do you want me to do about it?"

"Answer me, goddamn it! How could you live with being such a cheating bastard!" Mary restrains me as she tells me I've gone too far. "How many people have you screwed over with your constant cheating? First Mary, then Yumeko, then Shinohara! How many others?"

The door to the room opens as Momobami Kirari and Yomozuki Runa walk into the room.

"Not again," Nishinotouin sighs.

"First Jabami-san, now Kokoro-san," Kirari looks at Nishinotouin. "If you're going to cheat, make sure you try to hide it," she says with a chuckle.

"She found out," Nishinotouin says worriedly, as she turns to me. "Do you want to conclude this game? I believe I owe you thirty-"

"This game is far from over," Kirari says emotionlessly. "In fact," Kirari says with a slight smile, "this game is just getting started."


	35. Chapter 35: Fire in the Lotus House

Upon saying those words, Nishinotouin's attitude turned from mild annoyance to abject fear.

"Yomozuki," Kirari snapped her fingers. "You know what to do."

Yomozuki waddles over to Kamagusu and grabs the swords from her, playing with the magnet in the board. "Oooh, you guys are in trouble, Nya-ha-ha! I order you to replace the swords with the original ones at once!

Kamagusu hangs her head as she reaches underneath the board and grabs some identical looking swords, putting the magnetized ones back. Yomozuki plays with these swords on the magnet as I notice that these swords aren't attracted to the magnet. "I will be taking over as the dealer," Yomozuki announces to Kamagusu's and Nishinotouin's shock. "You two don't know how to behave," Yomozuki points at Kamagusu and Nishinotouin, "and as a purveyor of absolute neutrality, I will make sure this game runs smoothly! Let Round 5 begin! Kokoro-san, I believe it's your turn to choose the betting amount."

I return to a normal countenance, despite my anger. "Thank you, Yomozuki-san. Let's bet 300 million yen. I'm tired of playing. Also, I wish to exchange my one-million yen chips with ten-million yen chips. I no longer have a use for them."

Nishinotouin has a mix of shock and anger on her face. Kamagusu takes my one-million yen chips and gives me the appropriate amount of ten-million chips, leaving me with 73.

"Now that we got that settled," Yomozuki announces in a child-like voice, "let's begin!" She throws her swords in the pot and slams the cup on the board, similarly to the manner in which Kamagusu does it.

I place a chip on each space. Even though Kamagusu isn't the dealer anymore, I don't necessarily trust Yomozuki either. As a member of the student council herself, she's bound to have a bias towards Nishinotouin.

"Let's see what we have!" Yomozuki announces cheerfully as she lifts the cup. I gasp as I see the result before she even says it. "Life on 1!"

I look at Nishinotouin's board. She had chips concentrated on certain spots, but not 1. I just won 300 million yen.

"Oh dear," Kirari says smugly at Nishinotouin. "It looks like you owe 330 million yen to Kokoro-san. Let me remind you that your former balance was a mere 1.08 billion."

"Ooh! You're face is paler than usual, Nishinotouin-san! You're so busted!" Yomozuki pipes up.

Mary and I exchange blank stares. I didn't think the student council would actually be neutral. Props to Yomozuki.

"Let Round 6 begin! Nishinotouin, what do you bet?"

"Th-three hundred million. Kokoro-san is right. Let's do this."

After Yomozuki throws the swords in the cup and slams it on the board, I put one chip on each spot. Mary asks me why I'm doing this, and I respond that I still think this is the best strategy.

Yomozuki lifts up the cup to find that it is Life on 3 and Death on 13 and 19. Nishinotouin didn't have anything that matched, so this puts us at 730 million to 670 million.

"Nya-ha-ha! It's time for Round 7! Kokoro, what is your bet?"

"600 million." Nishinotouin sighs as I announce my bet. This may well be the final round.

"Excellent choice, Kokoro," Yomozuki said cheerfully. "Let's begin!" Like always, she throws the swords into the cup and puts it on the board. I put two chips on each spot, while Nishinotouin put chips seemingly at random amounts on random places on the board.

"It's time for the bet! Let's see if the odds are in your favor!" Yomozuki lifts the cup. "Death on 1!"

Nishinotouin had 6 chips on 1.

"H-how..." she murmurs, her eyes affixed onto the sword. "We were supposed to win. It was made to win."

"That marks the end of the game! I will now announce the result," Yomozuki exclaims. "Nishinotouin-san owes Kokoro-san 1.23 billion yen!"

I look back at Mary to see that she's just as shocked as Nishinotouin.

"I think we're done here," Kirari replies.

Yomozuki gets up from her sitting position and waddles behind Kirari, but before she leaves, she looks at her straight at Nishinotouin, who is still staring at the single sword at the center of the board. "You're fired."

Nishinotouin doesn't react. She still remains transfixed at the sword in the "Death" position. Kamagusu, who is at the corner of the room, starts sobbing quietly.

I get up with Mary and I leave the room. Some of the other club members, trying not to burst into tears at their leader's defeat, lead me to the exit of the room.

Mary and I approach the gambling dens and gather up the "council" members. "Hey guys," I announce to my friends. "We're closing up early. Let's go to Shinoki, my treat."


	36. Chapter 36: The Letter and the Check

The next day, I walk into school as various people around me whisper while looking at me. Somehow, news of my victory must have leaked into the surrounding campus. I peek into my locker to find an orange envelope. I grab the envelope and notice it's from the student council. I open it to find a check worth 1.23 billion yen along with a handwritten note from Kirari:

"Hello, Kokoro Akari,

Congratulations on your victory yesterday. Please meet me in my office after school.

Regards,  
Momobami Kirari"

I put the check and the note back into the envelope and into my backpack. During class, I keep checking the envelope to make sure the check is still there, to the suspicion of the classmates around me. Even during lunch, I make sure the envelope isn't more than five feet from me.

Mary notices this strange behavior. "What's in that envelope, Akari?"

"The check from the student council."

"That's awesome! Can I see?"

"Sorry, but I don't want others to see and get any weird ideas. I just want this day to be over so I can cash this in as soon as possible." This is the largest sum of money I've ever held in my hands. Even Sumeragi's check fails to surmount the wealth this check represents.

During lunch I see Nishinotouin, with her head down low. She is wearing a typical Hyakkaou uniform, to the spectacle of the other classmates. I've always seen Nishinotouin in her white and red kimono. Her club mates are around her, expressing the same countenance.

"Don't feel too bad," Mary tells me. "Remember how Nishinotouin stole over a billion yen from the people of Hyakkaou Academy. Now that that money is yours, I don't doubt that you'll use it for good."

Mary's kind encouragement lightens me up. Now that the council has approximately 2 billion in funds, we have enough money to take on some of the other student council members. I'm not sure how much Kirari is worth, but all I know is that her value far surpasses most, if not all of the other students, including me.

As the last class ends, I can't help but make sure the check is still in the envelope. Thankfully, it is. I head over to the student council office, where Kirari awaits me.


	37. Chapter 37: The Conversation

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Kokoro-san," Kirari tells me as she motions me to sit on the same couch as earlier. I sit down, waiting for her to tell me what she wants to say, although I'm pretty sure I know what she's going to say.

"As you know, we have an open spot on the student council from that... _incident_... earlier."

I nod. I couldn't help but remember Nishinotouin's stoic expression, her face that of pure anguish.

Kirari continues. "I want you to join the student council. You could make your own club, and you can even keep your silly gambling dens."

I take a deep breath, as I tell her something she wouldn't want to hear. "I'm afraid I'll have to decline this offer."

Kirari turns at me. "What?" She keeps a relatively calm expression as she looks curiously at me.

"I refuse the offer."

"I hear you, but why?"

"The gambling dens are much more profitable, and I work too hard on them."

"I thought you gave away the gambling dens for that very reason."

"It was so I could become a house pet."

"Why?" This conversation gets fast paced and awkward. I don't want to be here any longer.

"So I could fight NIshinotouin. I didn't need to use an official match."

"Why did you fight Nishinotouin?"

"I'm tired of this conversation." I stand up and make my leave. "I don't have to answer your question. You're not the boss of me."

"You never fail to pique my curiosity," Kirari remarks as I exit the room.

As I make my way to the gambling dens to help Mary and the others, I stumble upon where the Traditional Research Club used to be. Instead, there is a handwritten note from Nishinotouin noting how there were closing indefinitely.

I sigh as I make it to the room. "Nishinotouin had it coming," I repeat in my head as I walk to Book Room #2. I check my backpack and confirm that my check is still there, and I make it to Book Room #2 and help Mary count the money.

After that, I go to the bank and cash my check. The banker stared at me in bewilderment as I motion for her to complete the transaction as I got the notice on my phone that the transaction was complete and that I now have an additional 1.23 billion yen in my bank account. I make it home and wonder how the student council will retaliate as I go to sleep.


	38. Chapter 38: The Hunt for Ikishima

I'm not really sure what to do next.

After I won all the money from Nishinotouin last week, my checklist from earlier doesn't necessarily give any answers, providing a vague "Defeat the other members of the student council." Which member should I try to defeat first?

I decide to head on over to Mary while she's dealing, and I end up helping her by being at another table. "Hey Mary, what should I do now?"

"I'm not sure," Mary replies. "Just pick a student council member and start gambling."

"Which one, though?"

"If you want my answer, I'm pretty sure Ikishima has the lowest net worth of all the council members. Her games can get pretty violent, though."

"Thank you. I guess I'll end up doing that. Just make sure we're paying all of the room fees in time."

"Got it." Mary must be tired. She's been dealing for the past two hours now. As I leave the book room, I hear Mary say "Blackjack, dealer wins" as the group of betters let out a vague moan of defeat.

I'm not really sure where Ikishima's club room is. She calls herself the "Beautification Chair" or something like that, but I have no idea what it means. I'll use my official match if I have to; I just want to get this over with. I hear she's not a very friendly character.

I look around the school to find where Ikishima might be. I heard she's in a very secretive place, but I'm not quite sure where that would be.

I check in the deepest recesses of the building to find her office, but she doesn't seem to be anywhere.

After about half an hour of checking for where Ikishima would be, I notice her walking with her assistants, and I try to be as secretive as possible when stalking her for where she's going, and I see her enter the library. The entire room seemed to grow audibly quieter as she entered the room, and she marches up to a girl playing Roulette and asks for her money. I'm pretty sure student council member's weren't allowed to use collection methods other than the house pet system, but Ikishima rarely plays by the rules.

After berating the girl about not having her money, she says she'll give her one week before she'll use "alternative force." Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that "alternative force."

Ikishima leaves the library and heads with her posse to what I assume to be her lair. It's in an underground portion of the building with a large rusty staircase. As they unlock and swing open the door and walk down the staircase, I put my foot in the door as to enter without detection.


	39. Chapter 39: ESP

I sneak down the creaky, rusty stairs, trying not to make too much noise, as I survey my surroundings. The walls seem covered with stains from some form of moisture, with bacteria and rust forming on the handrails. I carefully step on each platform of the staircase, trying to see which spot would make the least amount of noise.

As I approach the bottom of the stairwell, I see a hallway with two doors to the right. I peek into the first room and see a table with a video camera. After that room, I go to the next one over. As I peek into the room, I see a table with two holes in it, a flat screen TV, some chairs, and a handwritten note. I take a look at the note. It reads "Hello, Akari," and I discover, to my horror, that this whole place is a trap.

"Hello, Akari." A voice says behind me and I turn around. It's none other than Ikishima Midari, head of the Beautification Council. "It's great to see you." For some reason, it takes me a while to notice the muzzle of a revolver being pointed right at my head. I gasp as I stumble backwards. "I know you want to gamble with me. Everyone in the Student Council knows. I have the lowest amount of money, is that it? Well," she chuckles, "that's going to be a big mistake for you."

My former curiosity and determination is replaced with dread. "You wanna gamble, huh?" Ikishima says loudly, "Let's gamble!"

She directs me with the gun to sit at one of the chair at the end of the table. "This is called the ESP Game. You load in a gun with some bullets, however many you want. Then, you drop the gun into the hole on the table and guess the order of the cards will be as displayed on that flat screen TV. If you get more cards than your opponent, you get to grab a random gun from the hole in the table and pull the trigger at the loser, and don't miss! If you miss, then the loser gets to pull the trigger at you!"

I'm not all that surprised, really. Yumeko was talking about this game before, and how she hated Ikishima's guts afterwards. Ikishima really does want to die from gambling.

"How will I not know you're not cheating?" I yell at Ikishima. "You can easily get signals from the flatscreen TV if your cronies are the ones laying the cards! I bet you already have an agreed upon order."

Ikishima laughs evilly. "Look. If you really want to make sure I'm not cheating, you can call up one of your friends and tell them where this place is. Then, she can place the cards for us. Got it?"

I take my phone out of my pocket and call Mary.

"What do you want," Mary asks with a yawn.

"No time to explain. Turn left of the library and go down the doors into the basement area."

"Hyakkaou doesn't have a base-"

"Just do it! Hurry up!"

"Fine, fine." After a few minutes, Mary comes running into the room with Ikishima pointing a gun at my head. "Ikishima! How come I didn't predict something like this. What game are you going to force us to play?"

"ESP. You deal the cards."

Mary sighs at this, almost as if she's been through something like this with her before.

"Now that we have our impartial dealer," Ikishima says with her signature nasally tone, "let this ESP game begin!"


	40. Chapter 40: ESP, Part 2

"Can you guys see me?" Mary says through the cellphone as she waves her hands on the flatscreen TV, which is broadcasting from the other room. The video camera that's broadcasting the feed is pointing down where the cards should be, so I could only see her hands.

"Hey Ikishima," I say to her in a slightly confident tone.

"What?"

"Can we make it so the loser must pay the winner 2 billion yen?"

"Uh... sure. I don't really care about money anyway."

"Great." If I have a chance of fighting the student council, I have to make sure I have the money to do so. If my journey through life ends here, I won't need the money anyway.

"I'm starting to lay the first cards down. Fill your guns, I guess."

I put in zero bullets this round. I have to get a feel for things before I can start shooting. Ikishima puts in at least one bullet, but I can't really tell, and we both put our guns in the hole in the table.

Mary places her cards on the table, face down. I just place my cards in a random order. I don't really care about what cards I place down, knowing it's impossible to tell.

"It's time to reveal your cards!" Ikishima snarls. Her attitude about this si realyl starting to piss me off. Just let me gamble with you with money. She definitely has some kind of fetish for this whole life or death thing, but I want out of it.

We both reveal our cards. I have two matches, and Ikishima has three. A pit forms in my stomach as I close my eyes in fear. Ikishima laughs maniacally as she quickly grabs a gun and fires at me.

Luckily, the gun was blank. It was mine. Ikishima groans as she flicks through the hoels in the revolver to find all the chambers empty.

We reload our guns with the number of bullets we desire and put them in the hole in the table. I put in two this time. Ikishima tells Mary over the phone to make a new order.

Shoot. I don't have any idea what to do next! When Yumeko played this game against Ikishima and tied, Ryota just copied Yumeko's hand, but Ikishima knows that, too. She also knows I'm friends with Yumeko, meaning she's thinking I'm copying my hand from before!

But instead, I'll copy Ikishima's hand. Hopefully, Mary went through the same thought process as I have. I really, really hope so.

We flip our cards over. Oh my god, I got all 5! Ikishima copied my hand, meaning she only got three right. This means I'm safe this round. I grab a gun and hesitate pulling the trigger. Am I really this close to killing a person?

"Oohhh... oh my God, Akari-san. Please, please do it!" Ikishima moans as she squirms on the table. "Please pull the trigger, oh... OOHHH!"

I lose all compassion for her as I pull the trigger. It's a blank. I look at the rounds and see that it was Ikishima's gun, which had four bullets in the chamber. Just my luck.

"It's... ahhh... time for round three, Mary." She's still coming back from her state of euphoria as we fill in our guns. I put three bullets in the chamber and put it into the hole.

Again, I'm not sure what to place, and I just repeat my hand from earlier. Ikishima is breathing heavily as she places her cards sensually on the table. I really am sick of her. I hope this game ends this round.

Mary reveals the cards she placed earlier. Shoot... the cards weren't mine. In fact, it was Ikishima's hand. I only got three right.

Ikishima could barely contain herself as she revealed her cards. It's the correct cards, but opposite. Her hand is the mirror image of the second one, meaning she only got one card right.

"Yes! YES! It's finally happening! The climax of this game- it's here. Akari! I put six bullets in my gun! Make the right choice, Akari!"

I reach into the hole and feel the two guns, and I feel how one of the guns in heavier than the other. Should I really murder this woman in cold blood? I see her breathing heavily. Oh god, now she's touching herself. I take the heavier one and point it at Ikishima.

"Hey Ikishima," I ask her as she stares down the muzzle.

"What... oh my God... ohhh..."

"Why didn't you just kill yourself and give me the money in the first place."

Ikishima moans loudly. "I see you've made the right choice." The moaning subsides. "Just pull the trigger, Akari."

I follow her wishes as her brains scatter the wall behind her. One of the cronies walk up holding a slip of paper. Upon closer examination, it's a check worth 2 billion yen. "Kirari and I will cover up the murder, baby. Don't worry about it."

I vomit all over the table, trying to avoid the check. Did I just really murder Ikishima? I look at where her head used to be and I confirm my suspicions. This really sucks.

I take the check from the lady's hands as I walk over to the next room. There I see Mary, her face as white as snow.

"Let's go home, Mary."

"I just wanted to take a nap after school."

"I'm sorry, Mary, but it had to be done. For Hyakkaou."

Mary runs up to me and hugs me, crying. I hug her back while I hold the check. "Oh yeah..." Mary sniffles. "Let's go cash this before we get vomit on it.

The lady at the bank stares at us as we present a check worth 2 billion yen. Luckily, we didn't have any blood or vomit on our school uniforms, but I assume the average teller doesn't ever see two high school girls give them a check worth 2 billion yen.

Mary and I exchange one last hug as we part ways. I try to eat dinner at home, but I vomit it all out of my system. I lay in bed, trying to sleep, but all I see when I close my eyes is the hole right in the middle of what was once Ikishima's forehead.


	41. Chapter 41: War and Empire

Our room fees have tripled ever since the incident with Ikishima.

My gambling den empire has been slowly getting larger since that incident, with the empire expanding into certain sections of the library. We've roped off the spaces of the library that's ours, charging a hefty admittance fee for a more quality gambling experience.

I've hired over fifty individuals for the task of dealing and counting money, and I pay each of them over 100,000 yen each week to do so. Any attempts at embezzlement caught by us are banned from the gambling dens permanently, forcing them to deal with any one of our smaller competitors.

Our competitors have sprung up ever since we started purchasing the library. They often try to negotiate with us for purchasing parts of our den, but we always refuse, making them purchase smaller slices of the library. Throughout the month, nearly every inch of the library is privatized. While this may seem bad to the student council, they're probably swimming in money from room fees. My share of the gambling space is nearly 80%, and we pay 50 million yen a week to the Student Council.

Of course, ever since I murdered Ikishima, the student council has been less than inclined to deal with me. Yumemite Yumemi, my next target, refuses to contact with me, even a month after the incident. I may have to use my official match to continue my conquest.

Additionally, the amount of gamblers in my dens seemed to decrease rapidly. Even though the death of Ikishima was ruled as a suicide, and I never got arrested, it seems they know how much money they really end up losing by gambling with private dens. Lowering profit margins help, but of course I end up losing profits to the high rollers. After finding equilibrium, I only make 200 million yen per week, 50 million of which go to the Student Council. If I'm going to topple the student council, I'll have to do it soon.

I email Yumemite Yumemi one last time, telling her how if she doesn't comply with me, I'll make her play with me in an official match. If she doesn't respond in a week, then I'll simply trap her in her dressing room and demand her to an official match.

Mark my words, Momobami Kirari: I will destroy you or die trying. This means war!


	42. Chapter 42: The Star of Hyakkaou Academy

After classes end for the day, I can't help but notice a commotion from where my gambling dens are, more specifically Book Room #2. I see a large crowd cheer in excitement over a figure I can't make out. I push my way through the crowd, and I find none other than my next Student Council challenge.

Yumemite Yumemi and her adoring fans are crowded around her. Head of Public Relations, she is a successful idol pop star, with million of views on YourTube.

"I LOVE YOU YUMEMI-CHAN!" A hefty boy yells at her.

"Aww~~~ thank you. Nyan!" Yumemite responds cheerfully and in a high pitched voice.

"GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR GAMBLING MATCH TODAY!" Another yells.

"Thank you! I love my fans uwu."

I knew it. She's here to gamble with me. She probably knew it would've happened one way or the other. I push my way through the crowd to meet her.

"Hello, Yumemite. I'm Kokoro. Please follow me." I open the doors to the book room. No one else is inside besides Shinohara and Mary. I close the door behind me, not letting in any crowd members. "Yumemite needs her focus for this gambling today, so no spectators!"

A wave of "good luck!" passes through the crowd as I close the wooden double doors to the book room. "That'll give you some personal space," I tell Yumemite.

"Thanks," Yumemite responds in a deeper, less cheerful tone. "I love my fans and all, but goddamn, they can be so annoying."

"How much gambling will be done today?"

"Let's go with 2 billion." I pause at that response, but then I realize I have quite a bit more than 2 billion. I cringe on how I got it though. "Don't pretend that you don't have 2 billion. Don't you have 4 billion. Don't worry- I won't tell how you got it. No one will believe me anyway. Kirari is so damn good at covering things up."

"2 billion sounds great," I reply. The case regarding Ikishima has already been ruled as a suicide. In fact, I wasn't even arrested. Whether that's a sign of good sportsmanship from Kirari or a demonstration of her power- I'm not too sure.

"So- what game are we playing."

"It's a Hyakkaou classic- an original to this very den actually," Mary interjects. "It's called Doubt Poker."

Yumemite bursts out laughing. "Oh- I've heard stories about you and Doubt Poker, Saotome-san. One of the former council members were giving you a hard time about it, huh? Isn't it your own game too. Yeah sure- I'll play that!"

Mary hides her face in embarrassment. I have no idea what Yumemite is talking about, but I have a feeling its one of the reasons why her den didn't end up growing as quickly as mine.

"I will explain the rules as a refresher," Mary begins. I've been preparing for this for about a week, but I listen to the rules anyway. Yumemite is a strong gambler. Knowing this, I'm not sure about what will happen.


	43. Chapter 43: Doubt Poker

"It's just like normal poker. You get 5 cards and exchange them once," Mary explains. Yumemite nods throughout the whole explanation. "However, once that happens, after both parties bet, you announce what hand you have without flipping over your cards."

"Can't you just lie?" Yumemite asks.

"Yes, you can," Mary continues, "however, you can 'doubt' the other player's claim about their hand. If you pay twice the amount of money as before, you can force the other player to reveal their hand. If they were lying, the player who called them out automatically wins the hand! If you lie and escape suspicion, your purported hand is the hand you get to play with!"

"Thanks for the refresher, Mary," Yumemite responds. "Let's get this game started!"

Mary gives 200 ten-million yen chips to Yumemite and I. Mary shuffles the cards and deals them out. It's time to play. Yumemite, I will destroy you.

I exchange two cards, while Yumemite exchanges one. Being the dealer, I bet first. "30 million," I announce as I put three chips on the table. I only have a pair of fives- not that great.

"Call," Yumemite responds.

"I have a three of a kind of nines," I announce. I'm going to bluff and lie my way to victory. I know I can win! After all, I have an obvious home field advantage.

"Hm... I have a pair of queens, but I bet you have a three of a kind, so I won't doubt. I think that means you win this round, Kokoro-san!"

"That is correct," Mary announces. "Kokoro-san wins 30 million yen." I collect my chips. A win's a win, but it isn't much. I'll have to bet bigger if I have a chance.

Mary re-deals the cards. After the exchange, I have a two pair of aces and kings. I was hoping for a full house, but this will do, I guess.

"150 million," Yumemite bets. Does she have a good hand?

"Call," I respond. Maybe if I make her think I have a bad hand, she could doubt me and lose.

"I have a three of a kind of twos!" Yumemite announces.

"I have a two pair of kings and aces, but I'm going to have to doubt that," I respond. I think she's bluffing. That bet was way too high for a simple three of a kind.

"Damn! You're right. No hand," Yumemite concedes, revealing her cards to have no hand. I just won 150 million yen, although this game will only end if one of the players runs out of money.

"Congratulations, Akari," Mary tells me. I can do this. After Yumemite, I'm at the home stretch. I can topple the student council and win!


	44. Chapter 44: Doubt Poker, Part 2

"Doubt," Yumemite smiles at me as I look at my cards in horror. She's right. I lost so much.

"With the end of Round 3," Mary announces, "Yumemite wins 300 million yen from Kokoro."

Crap. That leaves Yumemite with a net gain of 120 million yen. I really thought I could bet with a relatively common hand.

Mary starts round 4 as she gives us our five cards. I take a look at them and see a three of a kind of nines, with a ten and a jack on the side. I exchange the two cards, and I get another jack! A four of a kind is one of the best hands in the game. As long as Yumemite doesn't fold, I'll win this!

We each put down a 20 million yen blind. Yumemite is the first to bet, as she is the dealer.

"Eh," Yumemite shrugs. "My hand isn't that good- I'll fold."

She puts down her cards, face up. She had a straight. I look at her in terror. How did she know I had a good hand? Her straight could've only been beaten by a flush, a full house, a four of a kind, and a straight-flush, which combined only has a 1% chance of occurring. She's either insanely good at this game, or she's cheating.

"Congrats, Kokoro-san," Yumemite smiles at me. "Go- get your prize for this round." I pick up the chips and put them in my stack.

"We will now begin Round 5," Mary announces with slight fear for me. I pick up my five cards, but immediately, I cover all of the cards to where only the back of one card is actually showing.

Yumemite laughs hysterically. "What's wrong," I ask her smugly.

"Oh~ nothing, nothing," Yumemite responds. "This is so similar to when Mary played. I heard about this from a former student council member. I think she graduated, but she was so good at this game that she drained Mary of all of her funds. It's just like this game, too!"

Mary grinds her teeth in anger and as I swap two cards. I now have a three of a kind of eights. I cycle through the cards I could see, myself, making sure Yumemite couldn't see any of the backs of my cards.

"It is now the betting phase," Mary tells us.

"I will bet 200 million yen," I announce. I slide twenty chips on the table. I have a pretty good hand. Yumemite smiles with malice and looks at me and calls my bet.

"I have a three of a kind of eights," I announce.

"I have a full house," she responds calmly. I slide an extra twenty chips on the table.

"I doubt that."

She giggles as she reveals her hand, and I look in horror.

2, 3, 3, 2, 3.


	45. Chapter 45: Juraku Kills Again

Round by round, my pile of chips shrink rapidly. By the end of round 7, I have a mere 700 million yen, compared to Yumemite's 3.3 billion.

"How," I say with anger, "how are you cheating? How can you cheat so well that not even I could notice?" Mary hides her face in shame.

"Have you ever heard of Sachiko Juraku?" Yumemite asks me. The very name seems to make Mary uncomfortable. "She was the former head of morals last year, and she managed all of the gambling den payments. She was the best gambler in the academy, besides Kirari."

"What does that have to do with this game?" I ask angrily.

"She was the one who beat Mary at her own game- Doubt Poker," she responds. "I had her teach me. As an idol and an aspiring actress, I had to be able to read other's emotions like she did. It was like she could read minds. It was so amazing."

Mary interrupts. "We will now begin Round 8." She hands us our cards, and I hide them like I have been doing before, but instead I make sure she couldn't see any of the back of the cards.

"Kokoro-san," Yumemite says to me in a soothing voice. "I'm not cheating. In fact, I haven't cheated once this entire game."

"That's bullshit," I reply. I have a full house of aces and kings. I can win this. I really can. Yumemite bets 400 million yen, and I raise by betting all in. I've basically just won 700 million yen. I can't lose, I can't lose!

"Kokoro-san, you poor girl." Yumemite tells me in a way Kirari often speaks to me. "I have a straight flush, and I'm positive that's better than your hand. You can either leave this match losing 2 billion yen, or you can 'doubt' and lose 2.7 billion. It's your choice, Kokoro-san."

"I doubt," I grunt at her. I'm tired of this game. Just let me win this one hand, and maybe I can come back.

"I'm sorry, Kokoro, but you have to hear this yourself," Yumemite condescends me. "I'm certainly a worse gambler than Juraku-sama, and she's most likely a worse gambler than Kirari. If you really think you can take her on," as she's speaking Yumemite's expression grows from a condescending taunt to a raging fury, "then YOU'RE A TOTAL IDIOT!"

She throws her cards onto the table, showing a 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, all of which where hearts; she has a straight flush.

"This game is over," Mary announces with abject sorrow. "Kokoro owes Yumemite 2.7 billion yen."

Yumemite puts on her cheerful voice, preparing to leave, but before she opens the doors to outside the room, she turns around and says to me in her signature cheery voice. "Nyan~~~ you thought you could get away with playing a game that hasn't been played for over a year, owo, but choosing Doubt Poker is now the biggest mistake, uwu~~. Thank you, Juraku-sama!"

Yumemite throws open the doors to meet her adoring fans, as I sit at the table in silence.


	46. Chapter 46: Yumemite's Dressing Room

The very next day, I find a poster taped on the wall next to the Book Room #2:

"Yumemite Yumemi's Birthday Bash! Be sure to be there~~"

The date is next week. I have to take revenge, and I knew if I let her get away with my defeat, I'll never be able to defeat Kirari.

After school, I walk up to Yumemite's dressing room. Unlike Ikishima, I know exactly where Yumemite's office is.

I bang on the door, and Yumemite's manager opens the door to tell me to quiet down. She tells me that Yumemite is busy practicing for the birthday bash, but I tell her that what I need to tell Yumemite is really important and that I must tell her in person. She tells me to hold on and she'll ask Yumemite if I could come in.

She closes the door as muffled conversation occurs though the door. I hear Yumemite's snarky laugh and I hear footsteps coming through the door. I see Yumemite and her manager open the door, with Yumemite smiling evilly at me. The manager gives me a pat-down and then I enter the room.

"So," Yumemite says," you saw my flyer. Are you planning to attend my birthday bash?" Yumemite laughs.

"You know it," I respond. "And I will gamble with you there for all you got."

"And how will you do that," Yumemite chuckles at me. "I have four times as much money as you do."

"I'll beat you anyway," I respond, "and if I win, you must resign from the student council."

She covers her mouth to muffle a cry of laughter. "You're joking, right? Is that what this is all about? Fat chance, Kokoro-san. What'll be in it for me if- I mean when- I win?"

"I'll become your personal house pet."

Yumemite pauses her laughter. "Are you joking me?" Yumemite asks her, "the last person who ever actually owned a house pet was-"

"You were a student of Juraku-sama, were you not?" I ask her. "She owned a house pet of her own. You'll be just like her." I show her a leather leash that I slipped through the manager's pat down. Yumemite looks at the manager angrily.

"Fine," Yumemite concedes, "if you want to be dominated so bad, then I'll accept your stupid gamble. If you beat my 4.7 billion, I'll quit the student council, but if you lose your 1.3 billion, you'll become my personal house pet until graduation."

Yumemite smiles evilly as she stares at me, "you're going to be doing some dirty jobs. Porn, prostitution, you name it. Your life will be hell, so good luck- you'll need it."

"It's a deal then," I respond as I walk out of the room. "I'll think of a game to play, and it won't be Doubt Poker."

Yumemite chuckles as I leave. "Good- you may have a chance."

I close the door as I walk to the Officiating Office of the Student Council. This gamble will decide if I am truly worthy of meeting Kirari.


	47. Chapter 47: Yumemite's Birthday Bash

"Welcome, everybody~~!" Yumemite announces as the auditorium bursts into cries of joy.

"WE LOVE YOU, YUMEMI-CHAN!" Many of them scream back in their nasally voices. The obese and frail bodies of the fanboys of the audience often counteract one another when seating, with the fatter ones often taking up more than their fair share of a seat, and the gaunt ones taking up half of a seat or less.

As I look around, Mary, Sumeragi, Shinohara, Yumeko, and I are the only females at the birthday bash, if you don't count Yumemite and her manager. Ryota is here too, and he seems to be enjoying Yumemite's presence.

"Should I sing a song for you~~"

"YES, YUMEMI CHAN!"

"Okay! Here I go~~"

Yumemite goes on to sing some stereotypical Japanese idol song. Her dress is white with pink hemming, with plush candles on her shoulders. I guess she's trying to look like a birthday cake. I don't even know if its her birthday.

"Hey, Ryota," I whisper to Ryota, "is it her birthday?"

"I have no idea," Ryota responds, "she never says her birthday to anyone, but the birthday bash always falls on today each year."

After a few songs that she normally sings at every concert, she moves on to some idol versions of "Happy Birthday." After a few of those, she pauses to speak to her fans.

"Wow! That was a workout! How are you feeling today, gentlemen!"

"WE FEEL AMAZING, YUMEMI CHAN!"

"Unfortunately, that's all the songs I have for you all today, but I have one more birthday surprise for you all~~~." The crowd gasps in anticipation. Yumemite continues. "Today, I have a special birthday gamble!"

"WOAH! GOOD LUCK, YUMEMI CHAN!"

"It's with none other than the bookmaker who deals Hyakkaou, the serial killer of the student council, Kokoro Akari-chan!"

Serial killer, huh. I guess both figuratively and literally. I stand up and everyone stares at me. They all boo at me as I walk up to the stage.

"Be nice, gentlemen!" Yumemite addresses the crowd. It's going to be a nice, friendly gam-"

"HELLO EVERYBODY!" Yomozuki Runa runs up onto the stage. "As you all know, I am the chairman of the Officiating Committee of the Student Council, and, as a purveyor of absolute neutrality, I will officiate this gamble!"

Yumemite stares at me with intense anger, which I return with a shrug and a giggle. There's no way I was going to let Yumemite cheat this time. I have no idea if or how she cheated last time, or if she really was a student of Juraku, but I'm not going to take any chances.

"Let's get dow~~~~n to gambling!" Yomozuki shouts as the crowd erupts in cheers.


	48. Chapter 48: Sending Poker

"This game is an Officiating Committee Original!" Yomozuki shouts to the crowd as they awe in wonder. "It's called 'Sending Poker,' and here's how it works!

"Each player gets five cards, and you're allowed to exchange cards for new ones, and then you bet until an agreed amount is reached, just like regular Poker! However," Yomozuki pauses for dramatic effect, "after you bet, you are then to swap two of your cards to your opponent. You must swap two cards!"

The crowd murmurs to each other, contemplating the game mode. I guess Yomozuki really did make up a new game for us, because I have never heard of this version of Poker, and, by judging Yumemite's demeanor, neither has she. I look at Yomozuki. She is a mere 4 feet tall, despite being a high school student, and she and all of her subordinates wear a similar orange jacket.

"If there's no objection to this game," Yomozuki announces, "this game will now begin!"

Yumemite looks like she's about to object, but ends up abandoning the notion. Two girls with jackets whose names I've never learned gives us our chips. I look at the obverse of one of the thirteen chips I received, and see a "10,000 man" (A/N: 100 million yen) printed on it. I've never played with such a high denomination chip before! It's certainly going to be exciting. I look over and see that Yumemite's stack is much larger than mine.

"Let's begin round 1!" Yomozuki cries as the crowd cheers for Yumemite louder than ever before. I look at the back of the auditorium to see Yumeko, Mary, Ryota, Sumeragi, and Shinohara watch anxiously.

We each pay a one chip blind and we get five cards each. After exchanging three of my cards, my hand doesn't end up too well- a pair of twos. However, Yumemite is more likely to give me a weaker card, meaning she's more likely to give me 2s or 3s. I also have a three in my hand, so I keep the two 2s and my 3 and plan on giving my other cards away.

Yumemite smiles as she puts down an extra four chips as a bet. The crowd gasps in shock. The bet is already at 500 million yen. I call, eliciting an equally loud gasp from the crowd.

"We have now finished the betting! Now it's time for the card exchanges! Please swap two cards! Also, there's no need to keep them face down, so you can just give them up."

I give my two other cards to Yumemite, which were a 7 and a 10. Our faces both seem to light up as we got our cards. I pick up my cards and put them into my hand to see that Yumemite gave me another 2 card- I got a three of a kind!

"It's time for the showdown!" Yomozuki announces as she motions for us to reveal our cards.

Yumemite has a two pair of 7s and 9s, while I have a three of a kind of 2s- I win!

"Congrats, Kokoro! You win the pot!"

Yumemite stares at me with malice as the crowd erupts into cheers. Perhaps they came around to me, I guess. I haven't really said anything, but I guess I proved I'm a match for Yumemite.

"Now," Yomozuki shouts, "let's get on with Round 2~!"


	49. Chapter 49: Sending Poker, Part 2

"Let me tell the audience about the stakes!" Yomozuki squeals to the audience. "If Yumemite loses, she has to abandon her seat at the student council!" The audience gasps. "And," Yomozuki continues, "if Kokoro loses, she will have to be Yumemite's assistant until graduation!" The crowd has mixed feelings about this. Some people don't like how I would basically be a house pet, but others are excited for a new cast member.

As we put our two chip blind and Yomozuki hands us our cards, I can't help but think about strategy.

Yomozuki is only using one deck, and she's not shuffling cards after each round, meaning that counting cards is especially easy. For example, three 2s have already been used, meaning there's only one two in the remaining deck. That means this card is mainly safe for giving to your opponent because she can't score a pair, two pair, full house, three of a kind, or a four of a kind with the cards; it's generally much harder to have a good hand with a card that doesn't have a match in the deck anymore.

I look at my cards and swap what I want, and notice I'm one away from a straight. I have a 3, 4, 5, and 6, and J. I'm about to celebrate until I stop myself. I need to abandon two of my cards, so I can't just swap and get a straight that way. I need to see if I can get a straight after I swap with Yumemite. I bet an extra two chips, totaling my bet to 400 million yen, and Yumemite calls. She probably won't give me two consecutive cards, so my only hope is she'll give me a 2 and a 6. If she got a 2, she probably will give it to me, so the chance there's a 2 in her hand is about a 4% chance

We swap cards. I give her my 6 and my J, and she give me a 7 and an 6. I guess she didn't have a 2, but I have a straight, anyways! However, I look at the relatively pitiful sum of money I bet for my hand and curse my low bet.

"It seems like you have a straight now, Kokoro-san!" Yumemite tells me cheerfully. "I can tell from your demeanor. You quickly hid your celebratory attitude when you realized you couldn't keep your 4 card row. Also, I bet you were hoping on me giving you a 2 because there's no possibility for a pair. Too bad you didn't bet high!" She gestures at the four chips she bet. "Good luck on the other rounds, though!" Her eyes are piercing through her veil of her good attitude and sportsmanship. She's out to win, and she's definitely out to make me her house pet.

"Good luck to you too," I respond.

"It's now time for the showdown!" Yomozuki shouts.

Yumemite reveals a junk hand, and I reveal a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 straight. The crowd gasps for the millionth time, but more because Yumemite correctly predicted my hand than the fact that I had a straight.

Yomozuki announces the result. "Kokoro wins again! Let's go to the third round!"


	50. Chapter 50: Sending Poker, Part 3

"Fold"

"Fold"

The crowd murmurs after Yumemite folded the second time in a row. She lost 10 chips from the blinds, leaving me with 32 chips Yumemite 28. I have absolutely no idea what she gains from the folding. My hands were pretty good the past two hands, which was irksome. She isn't cheating. The cards look identical from the back, and the Yomozuki has a reputation for being completely impartial, and cheating in such a large audience would be way too risky for the student council's image. Even though Yomozuki is a student council member herself, she's known for acting like she's a third party in gambles, and she's never been caught cheating.

"It's time for the fifth round!" Yomozuki announces in her usual joyous tone. She motions us to bet five chips each for our blind- a hefty blind, but it's necessary to punish those who fold. I get my cards and exchange them as I see fit, and I see I have a three of a kind of 5s. This is one of the best hands I could be sure about! I could simply keep my 5s in my hand and exchange the other two with Yumemite- there's no way I could lose!

Yumemite bets 5 chips in addition to the 5 chip bet, which elicited a cheering from the audience.

"GOOD LUCK YUMEMI-CHAN! WE LOVE YOU YUMEMI-CHAN!"

I match her raise, bringing the total chips bet to 15, and Yumemite calls. At this point, the crowd loses it. I look over and see Mary burying her head in her lap. What is she doing? In fact, the entire group seems to be in a state of despondency, which Yumeko trying to console a crying Shinohara. What the hell is going on? I have a killer hand!

When it's time to swap the cards, I get nothing special: a 7 and an 8. I gave her a 2 and a 10, so there's not a high chance she has any pairs.

"It's showdown time!" Yomozuki yells. The crowd is obviously quite tense, given how each of us are betting 1.5 billion yen.

We place down our cards, and the crowd goes wild.

I stare at Yumemite's cards in horror, while Yumemite wears a smug grin. I almost fail to register Yumemite's three of a kind of aces.


	51. Chapter 51: Sending Poker, Part 4

"Ooh! Lucky me!" Yumemite sings in a sing-songy voice as she sweeps the chips to her stack. There's no way she isn't cheating, I thought. I look at the back of the cards- there's nothing on the back of them. I look at the way Yomozuki is shuffling. I know she often uses a special shuffle to spice things up, but it looks like her shuffle is normal. I look around the stage. I take the quickest glance and see it. _It._

I pull Yomozuki aside as I whisper to her what I found. She nods. "We will make it fair," she whispers back. Yumemite doesn't hear what she's saying, so when I come back, I make something up for the reason why I talked to her.

"Oh- I just thought the cards looked weird, and she just assured me they're normal, that's all," I reassure Yumemite. Whatever I do, I can't let her know that I know that there's a mirror behind me, just off the stage, that reflects all of my cards to Yumemite.

The only reason why my group saw the mirror was that they're sitting at the very corner of the auditorium. Because they were sitting in the back row, they couldn't shout at me that Yumemite was cheating. We went through hell and back to get six tickets to this show, and the only ones that were available were at the back seat.

"Let's start Round 6!" Yomozuki cries. I can't tell if the mirror is still behind me or not, because she'll know that I know she's cheating if I turn around and look. I was lucky Yumemite was looking at the growd when I first glanced behind me.

I was expecting them to just get rid of the mirror, but when I saw that another lady in an orange jacket was wheeling out a mirror to show me Yumemite's cards, I knew things were about to get interesting.

After receiving and exchanging my cards with Yomozuki, I see that I have a pair of sixes. It isn't a great hand, but Yumemite has a junk hand. When it comes to bet, I try to be timid and bet two chips on top of my six chip bet. Yumemite must have thought I thought she had a good hand, so she raises to a total of 10 chips, including her blind. I call.

"Sounds like you're running out of hands, Kokoro!" Yumemite motions at my stack of chips, which is now down to 7. The crowd laughs. "Just kidding, of course. This is an interesting gamble."

"Quite certainly." I hand her the cards that will ensure her no hand, and she gives me junk cards, too. It doesn't matter, anyways, because I've just won the hand.

We show our cards, and, just as I expected, I win with my pair of sixes.

"Aww man!" Yumemite yells in a cute voice. "I could've won if you gave me that card!" She points at the jack I had in my hand that I didn't switch. If I did switch that card, she would've had a pair of jacks. She doesn't catch on, though, because there's a relatively high 1/3 chance of not switching a card if you have a pair. She also didn't notice because she's an idiot.

This brings the chip counts to Yumemite with 33 and me with 27. Now that is "fair," again, I don't feel bad with using the mirror. The whole student council is one big cheat, so I feel like I'm just giving them a taste of their own medicine.

"It's ti~~~~~me," Yomozuki draws the announcement out for drama, "for Round 7~!" The crowd has a mixed cheering of "KO-KO-RO!" and "YU-ME-MI!" It's time to win this thing.


	52. Chapter 52: Sending Poker, Part 5

It's time to bet during Round 7. I look at my cards and Yumemite's cards, trying not to look obvious. Yumemite won't give me any cards that will end up helping me, so I'm essentially stuck with what I have. I have a pair of 7s- a cruddy hand, but as I look at Yumemite's hand I realize that it might be the best hand I could have.

She has a 2, 2, 6, 6, 7. If she gives me a 2 or 6, I win because I have a pair of 7s against her pair of 2s. If she gives me the 7, I win because she gives me a three of a kind of 7s- a hand that's higher than a two pair.

I try to act as wary as I can as I bet 3 more chips on top of my 7 chip blind. Yumemite tries to bluff me out- that idiot! She bets to 27 total chips. I, of course, call. The crowd holds their breath, as this basically determines the winner of the match. When I win, Yumemite will have only 6 chips against my 54.

We swap cards, and I give a card that regains her two pair, but I've been lucky enough not to get anything that could positively affect her so far. She looks annoyed. I see she only has a two pair of 2's, so she gave me a 6 and a 7. I look at my cards and see that I got a 7 and a 6. Tough luck, Yumemite.

"It's show~~down~~!"

I flip my cards over in a dramatic fashion, revealing my hand. I see Mary cheering for me with most of the crowd as Yumemite tries to hide her rage.

"Wow, Kokoro!" She looks behind her and slowly turns around back at me. "How... do you do it?" Shoot. She saw the mirror. "Yomozuki," Yumemite asks, "can you restore the old settings of the game. I'd like to play the old fashioned way."

Yomozuki nods as two orange jacket ladies wheel the mirrors away from both sides of the stage. I don't think there's any way for Yumemite to cheat now, so I guess it's time for an actual match for once.

"Because Yumemite only has 6 chips," Yomozuki announces, "this gamble will only involve 6 chips! There will be no additional betting phase. Round 8, begin!"

I get my cards, making sure to cover them up as well as I can this time. I check to make sure there's no mirror or any way for her to see my cards. Yumemite chuckles. "Oh, Kokoro-chan," Yumemite teases me. "Why are you so paranoid?"

"I just want a clean game?"

"Trust me, Kokoro" Yumemite's tone goes darker, even though the crowd is in earshot of our conversation, "this will look like cheating, but it will all be pure skill."

At first I didn't believe it- I still don't- but as she announces my hand to the crowd with perfect accuracy for two rounds in a row, I understand how I would think it was cheating.


	53. Chapter 53: Juraku's Broken Puppet

It's now completely even- 30 chips to 30. How was I at such a lead, only to lose it all within two rounds? Either way, I have a feeling this will be the last round of this game. One of us will be defeated.

I have one idea on how to beat her. This monster of a gambler. This definitely could never work with Kirari, and the only reason I'm doing it now is because this is my only chance to do so.

"It's Round 10! Both players are on an even playing field! Who will win? Who will lose? Will Yumemite get kicked off the student council? Or will Kokoro be forced to become Yumemite's assistant? It's time to see!"

I get my cards, but I don't flip them up so I can see them. "You're a master of reading faces, right Yumemite-san?"

"Aw, stop it, Kokoro-san! You flatter me~"

"Seriously," I reply. "You are both an aspiring actress and a former student of Juraku. You have to be a master at seeing even the most secret tells." My voice is serious, which is off-putting compared to Yumemite's cheerful and friendly façade. Also, the crowd seemed to get a little anxious at the mention of Juraku.

"I guess I could say I have a gift for seeing tells! You don't have much of a poker face, though," Yumemite responds. "I'll help you learn when you become my assistant." The crowd gasps. This is probably the only piece of trash talk uttered throughout the entire match.

"Maybe I'm not the best at Poker, or card games for that matter," I respond. "After all, I am a pathetic bookkeeper- how good at gambling could I be? But-" I continue, "there's one thing that even the best gamblers can't surmount."

Yumemite slowly drops the cheerful attitude. "And what's that?"

"Chance, Yumemite-san." I stand up and address the crowd. "I will not take a look at my cards for the rest of this match!" The crowd is startled, and my group even more so. "What the hell are you doing?" Sumeragi yells as loud as she can from the back.

"You can't have a tell if you can't _tell_ what the cards are yourself!" I exclaim. Yumemite is equally startled as Sumeragi. "And," I announce, "I am going all in!"

The crowd goes wild as they start talking to each other, along with mixes of cheers and boos for both Yumemite and I. "Yomozuki," I tell her, "let's finish this."

"Right on! You can exchange what ever cards you like!"

I exchange to Yomozuki one card. It doesn't matter, of course, since I'm not looking at my cards, but perhaps this card will be better.

"It's now time for the betting phase!"

I slide over my entire stack of chips, and Yumemite calls, inciting cheers to Yumemite and boos to me. "You're right, Kokoro-san," Yumemite turns to me. "What you're doing is completely idiotic, and I have such a high chance of winning, but what you're doing might just be the best chance of you winning. With Juraku's training, I could roughly predict your cards with pretty high accuracy, but with your cards down," she pauses, "you might have a chance. I'm truly and completely clueless."

"It's time for swapping," Yomozuki yells to the crowd. The crowd is silent now, almost holding their breath. I take the edge two cards and slide them over to Yumemite, who in turn hands me two of her cards. She can see her own cards, but not mine. If she really can't see my cards whatsoever, then my chances of winning are theoretically to be 50%.

"It's SHOW," Yomozuki raises her hands in the air, "DOWN!" Yomozuki points at us to flip over our cards.

Yumemite: A, A, 2, 3, 4

Me: 3, J, J, J, K


	54. Chapter 54: Party's Over

Yumemite stands up suddenly as the whole room goes up in boos. Mary seems exhausted from the back of the room, even though I could barely see her from all the jumping around.

"Kokoro wins the gamble!" Yomozuki announces, but she's barely heard over the collective anguish from the Yumemite fanboys. Yumeko, Shinohara, Mary, Sumeragi, and Ryota all run out of the room in order to not get chased by the angry mom that is now forming.

Yumemite seems to be nearly frothing at the mouth in anger as I shrug and giggle at her. "Yumemite owes Kokoro 4.7 billion yen, and she is to resign from the student council!"

"There's no way in hell I'm going to do that!" Yumemite shouts, but again, she is drowned out by the chaos in the room.

Kirari walks on the stage from behind the curtain and grabs the microphone from Yomozuki. Yomozuki looks at us. "Awww- y'all got the president involved! You guys are in tro-"

"Enough, everybody," Kirari addresses the raging crowd. They all immediately settle down. "Despite Yumemite's unsuccessful cheating efforts, which Yomozuki was supposed to catch, Yumemite has lost the gamble."

Yomozuki chuckles in embarrasment as Yumemite stares at Kirari in fear.

"Yumemite owes 4.7 billion yen to Kokoro-san, which is to be paid at once. Additionally," she turns around and looks at Yumemite with a smug expression. "Yumemite-san is to submit her resignation from the student council immediately."

The crowd is silent as Kirari hands Yomozuki back the microphone. "Uhh," Yomozuki mutters into the microphone, "this gamble is over."

Yumemite falls and her knees and stares at the ground, her strawberry hair touching the wooden stage floor. She looks absolutely ridiculous in her birthday cake outfit.

Kirari walks up to Yumemite and lifts her face up to her own. "Look at yourself," Kirari tells her in a matter-of-fact manner, "you are nothing like Juraku. She fell gracefully." After she says this, Kirari walks off the stage, and Yomozuki follows.

After a minute or so of relative silence, I leave the stage, too. I take one last look at the scene behind me before I close the curtains. I look at the banner reading "YUMEMITE'S BIRTHDAY BASH!" draped across the back of the auditorium.

"Hey Yumemite," I say to her in a normal tone.

"What."

"Is it your birthday today?"

"Go to hell."

I pull the curtains over me, leaving the scene. As I walk home from school alone, I couldn't help but have the image of 100 faces of fear and anguish, along with the collapsed figure of Yumemite in a birthday cake costume sobbing silently on the floor, burned into my mind.


	55. Chapter 55: Eviction

"Yumemite still does concerts, but they're much more expensive now." Mary informs me as I set up the gambling dens for business.

"I'm surprised she still has a fan base," I respond. After Kirari exposed Yumemite of cheating and still losing, she received quite a negative reputation. Her views took a slight dip, but she still has quite a large loyal fanbase.

"So," Mary asks me, "what's next?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean," Mary walks over to me. "Nishinotouin, Ikishima, and Yumemite were the only ones in the Student Council who both liked to gamble and didn't have that much money."

"So?"

"_So_," Mary continues, "you're going to have to fight the Momobamis now."

"How am I going to do that?" I turn around to her. Kirari and Ririka Momobami, the president and vice president of the student council, come from a long line of wealthy elites. They practically run the nation. Actually, I'm pretty sure the primary shareholders of my parents' companies are Momobami representatives.

Mary shrugs. "Maybe ask Sumeragi for help. She was on the student council at one point."

"The only reason she was on the student council was because she donated a ton-"

As I finish my sentence, the door opens.

"Sorry," Mary tells the people at the door, "we aren't open ye-"

"This gambling operation is closed indefinitely!" Igarashi Sayaka, the student council secretary, yells, with Ririka Momobami at her side.

"These dens that you manage will be seized by the student council as payments for your loans," Ririka states through the mask concealing her face.

"What the hell?" I yell at them. "You can't do that!"

"Rule change. There is nothing you can do. Please vacate the room." Ririka shows us out.

Ririka and Igarashi tape the doors to all of our owned rooms shut. They also remove the roped off sections of the library we own. We've been stripped of our income.

"This concludes our business," Ririka announces to me. "This has been commanded by the student council. I hope you understand." Igarashi and Ririka walk out of the library.

"Well shoot," Mary tells me. "We knew this would happen eventually."

"Yeah," I tell her. "I didn't know it would happen so soon."

"It's whatever," she responds. "At this point, we weren't getting that much from it anyways- only about 50 million per week with all of the fees."

"That is true- at least no income is going to the Momobamis.

"Okay, really," Mary asks me again, "what are you going to do next?"

"We have to get a positive reputation," I explain to her. "After beating Yumemite for seemingly no reason, I've gotten some hate. We need to clear our name and give back to the community."

"And how are you going to do that?"

I look at her and smile. "I have an idea."


	56. Chapter 56: Swaying the Public

As the lunch period progresses, the six of us work on putting up the posters to our poker tournament all around the school:

"POKER TOURNAMENT~

NO BUY IN- WIN CASH PRIZES!

150 million yen giveaway!

Sponsored by Kokoro Akari~~"

"Are you sure you want to give away 150 million yen?" Sumeragi asks me.

"It's fine," I reply. "I need to sway the opinion of the people about me. I'm well known for taking down their favorite student council members, but now I need to be well known for being the liberator of the people."

"I guess you're right," Sumeragi exhales. "Besides, what's the point of beating Kirari if no one will listen to you."

"Exactly!" I respond, "and if this isn't enough, I'll just simply host another one. Money is the only thing these people want. If I can give it to them, there's no way I'll lose the public favor!"

"If that's what you think will work..." Sumeragi concedes. "Money can't buy you everything, Kokoro-senpai. I learned that the hard way."

"That's true," I respond, "but I'll definitely need the will of the people."

As the after school period went on, more and more buzz about this event occurs. I always hear about it at the library gambling tables. For the first time in a while, I can gamble recreationally. It's quite relaxing, and people often thank me for giving them an opportunity to earn some quick cash. I can already feel my reputation as a selfless leader grow among the students of Hyakkaou!

I go home in a good mood. After I finish my homework for the evening, I set up the system for the cash prizes from the poker tables. If there are 250 students wanting to play, there will have to be three steps to the tournament, with the winner of each table moving up a step to play with the other winners. The winner, 2nd place, and 3rd place of each of the lower tables will earn 500,000, 250,000, and 125,000 yen respectively, with the winner having an opportunity to play at the middle step of the tournament. At the middle step, the winner, 2nd place, and 3rd place of each table will win an additional 4,000,000, 2,000,000, and 1,000,000 yen respectively, with the winner moving on the the championship table.

At the championship match, the winner, 2nd place, and the 3rd place of the table will win an additional 32,000,000, 16,000,000, and 8,000,000 yen respectively. This means the winner of the entire championship will win a grand total of 36,500,000 yen!

Satisfied with the tournament layout, I get into my pajamas and get into bet. I can't wait to see how this goes!


	57. Chapter 57: The Tournament Guest

"I will participate in this tournament!" Igarashi Sayaka announces as she bursts into the library- the site of the tournament. I stare at her in shock. She never wants to gamble! She gets all of her donation fees from working under Kirari, so she never has to gamble. "I will restore faith in the student council by defeating Kokoro Akari in a tournament gamble!"

The crowd of participants giggle. Ever since the downfall of Yumemite, the approval of the student council has decreased significantly.

I also vastly underestimated the amount of students gambling. There are over 1000 students wanting to participate, meaning each of the stages has to have ten people.

"I accept this offer," I announce to the crowd, much to their dismay. Even though I'm the organizer of the tournament, letting a very wealthy organization, as well as myself, gamble in this supposed charity event doesn't go well with the audience. I tell the crowd that I will reimburse the money lost by being behind Igarashi and I, which calms them down.

"With that," I announce to the crowd, "I will create the randomized brackets!"

I enter the names into a random bracket software I found online, and it outputs a tournament schedule. Because there are 1000 people, there will be 100 people in the second round and ten people in the championship round.

My screen is projected onto the wall of the library, so once I randomize it, there's no way of redoing it without looking like cheating. I click 'Randomize' and see what's on the board.

I sigh annoyedly as I see that Igarashi and I are nowhere near each other on the tournament bracket. We won't be competing until the championship round. I'm going to have to pay quite a bit of money to the runners up for taking their place to the next round. I'm really good at Texas Hold'em- the type of Poker we're playing in the tournament- so there's a good chance I'll be going to the championship round.

"I hope your ready, Igarashi Sayaka," I turn to her as she adjusts her violet ponytail. "You're gonna be in for a wild ride."

"Please," Igarashi responds. "All gambling is is just a bunch of math. There's no need to actually be lucky in this type of gambling. That crap you pulled with Yumemite? That was luck. This? This is all a bunch of probability and statistics."

"Well, good luck with that." I respond to her. I turn to the crowd, who looks eager to start the first few tournaments. We have 25 poker tables to use, so the first round will have to be played over a long time. "Let the tournament begin!" I shout as the crowd erupts in cheers.


	58. Chapter 58: The Tournament

"Wow, Kokoro-san! You're so good!" My last opponent of the first round tells me as I reveal my full house. I just won the first round!

Of course, I pay the second, third, and fourth people extra in order to minimize my impact on the game. After I pay my opponents, I go over to Igarashi's table, where she's playing her match with two others. Igarashi has many more chips than they do. You can't "re-buy" extra chips, so after you run out, you're eliminated from the tournament.

The other two players seem to go all in after a flop of 10, 9, and J, and Igarashi calls. After the next two cards are reveled, all three players show their hands. One of the players had a pair of jacks, one had a two pair of 9 and 10, and Igarashi has a straight of 8, 9, 10, J, Q, winning the hand and the first round.

I pay the second, third, and fourth place players as well. The decision to let Igarashi and I into the tournament was not very popular, so in order to preserve the point of this tournament- to improve my relations with the public- I need to shell out a little extra to the losers of the game.

After a few hours, all of the first round matches have been completed. My hand is cramping from writing out so many checks. Because there are 100 first-level rounds instead of 64, I'm giving away a lot more money than what I first imagined. Unless I get some other sponsors, there won't be many more tournaments like this in the future.

The second tournament level starts, and I'm one of the last ones to play. Igarashi is one of the first, so I get to see how she bets. Playing against her is like playing against a bot that's on the "super hard" difficulty. She's an expert at probability, and although she can rarely predict what other players have, she can definitely count cards and estimate her chances of winning a given hand.

After halfway through the match with Igarashi, it's my turn to play. It's really tough, but I end up in first place, much to the chagrin of the other competitors. I pay them their fair share and go back to the tournament bracket, only to see that in the final round. It looks like it will be me against Igarashi and eight others.


	59. Chapter 59: The Extra Gamble

(A/N: Hey guys. I'm really sorry for not uploading anything recently- quarantine has been kicking my butt. I really hope y'all can forgive me uwu)

"Why are you doing this, Kokoro-san," Igarashi asks me with the force behind her voice that's normal with someone of her personality. "Why are holding this free poker tournament where you're giving away hundreds of millions of yen. Is it for power? Influence? Money laundering?"

"Why are you so obsessed with my reasoning?" I smile, partially hidden by the cards in my hand. It's been an hour, and we're the only two players left at the table. An audience of hundreds surround us. "What are you gonna do- spread a rumor about me and my team?"

"You realize the student council is one of the most powerful organizations not just in Hyakkaou, but in Japan. We're probably- no, definitely- more powerful than the official administration of this school. In fact, you're lucky our president hasn't expelled or suspended you."

The audience around us doesn't gasp at the last part of her dialogue, even though I thought they would. I guess they, too, fail to underestimate the true power of the student council. "Let's just say I don't need to tell you anything."

"Why are you doing any of this." Her face turned into a ghastly, blank expression, replacing her usually fiery nature. "Why did you take down all of our gambling student council members? Yumemite, Ikishima, Nishinotouin. What's the point? Is our council really that bad to you?" She slams her fists on the table, making sure her cards aren't revealed. Her face returns to her usual angry countenance. "What are you thinking right now?!"

"How about this," I tell her. "Let's do this the Hyakkaou way." Igarashi looks puzzled, her straight eggplant bangs draping the sides of her head. "Let's gamble for that answer."

Igarashi scoffs. "I saw this coming, Kokoro-san, but I wouldn't expect I'd actually be right." She lifts a briefcase and slams it on the table. She opens the briefcase to reveal a large sum of cash. The crowd bursts into cheers. Any sum more than 5 million yen and their reactions are almost always the same. "It's 100 million yen," Igarashi tells me. "That's how much I'll gamble for your secret. Whoever wins this match will win the gamble."

"Sounds good," I respond. As the volunteer puts down the river, I slide all of my chips in the pot. "All in."

Igarashi smiles and calls. She had a few more chips than me, so if I lose, the match is over.

"Full house," I announce.

"Four of a kind, this is over," Igarashi responds. The crowd erupts into boos. "Well, Kokoro-san. Your plan?"

"I'm a woman of my word, Igarashi Sayaka," I tell her. "I will end Momobami Kirari."


	60. Chapter 60: The Opinions of Me

In order to better gauge the public outlook of me after each of the charity events, I organized a polling system by some student journalists willing to poll about 100 students after every gamble. The goal of the population was to determine which percentage of the school would appreciate my rule over Kirari's. After my initial defeat from Igarashi, the poll started off at the lowest point it would ever reach, with a 17% approval rating of me versus an 83% approval rating of Kirari.

The poll was simple. It simply asked the poll-takers:

Which student would you rather be as the president of the school's student council?

A) Momobami Kirari  
B) Akari Kokoro

After my crushing defeat against Igarashi, I assumed the reason why the polling numbers were so low were because of the combination of the facts that both I had let Igarashi join the match and that the student council, not Igarashi, beat me. Because I lost, it showed the population of Hyakkaou that I was a weak gambler, which ruined the trust of the school.

After subsequent charity gambles, however, sponsored usually by a combination of both me and another high-status gambler, my polling numbers slowly rose. "High-status gamblers" usually include those who famously cheated and are trying to increase their reputation among the school. Even though I didn't really appreciate how cheaters are using my platform for recognition, I needed the money to fund these extravagant tournaments and raffles, usually going into the hundreds of millions of yen.

Even Yumeko chipped in once or twice, citing how she "just wants to help my cause." Why she can't just gamble in my place, she refuses to answer clearly, in her signature Yumeko style.

Initially, my approval rating rose from 17% to 25%, and kept climbing. It really seemed like the student council kept losing and losing trust among the people of Hyakkaou Academy. From 25% to 30% to 34% it kept rising, until, after about a dozen or so of these events, it started to flatline around the 50% mark. Although I do like that I have about the same popularity as Kirari, I need to be more popular to cause any sort of unrest in the population. I haven't really heard of any protest of Kirari so far, such as refusing to pay their donations. It really goes to show how engrained Kirari is in this school

There's really only one other way for me to get more popular. I have to ask _her_.


	61. Chapter 61: Negotiations

"So," Nishinotouin asks me in a disinterested tone as I sit in front of her at a lunch table, "what do you want from me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I return to her. Nishinotouin was regarded as a charitable person to all who hadn't gambled her, which was quite a bit of the school's population. She mainly rose to fame through a few high-stake victories, so at least half of the school thought of her as a generous individual, saving many from becoming house pets. Only a few unlucky victims know her true persona- a ruthless cheater who got caught in her own act by none other than myself. However, her reputation has been slowly declining ever since she was thrown from the student council, as more and more people started to realise how she became so famous. "I need your good word."

"Why me?" She asks me.

"There's no way I could ask Yumemite, and Ikishima-"

"Fine." She responded. "I guess charity work isn't enough for you. You have to get endorsements now, huh?" Her long brown hair whips upwards as she scoffs at me, turning her oval head. I get a little annoyed at her, about to retort sarcastically, until I realise _I _am asking _her _for help.

It wasn't difficult to find her. She leads a crowd of her former club-mates wherever she goes, like a mother goose leading her goose-lings. Although she was no longer a club leader, she kept her congregation of unofficial traditional researchers. Part me thinks that the reason why she has such a following is because everyone knows she's rich, and that she pays taxes for those who research under her.

"So," I reset the tone of the conversation, "what do I need to do to earn your endorsement?"

"I have no idea," she responds in a bored tone. She seems quite annoyed at me for disturbing her bento lunch. "What are you offering?" I need to get her interested. I need to sweeten the deal.

"Let's gamble," I respond. Her slits for eyes perk up almost imperceptably, as I offer the stakes of this challenge. "If I win, you must recite an honest endorsement of my good character." I smirk in satisfaction. There's no way she'll refuse!

"And if _I _win?" Nishinotouin stares at me with a blank expression. "What do I earn?"

"You'll earn a seat in my council. And five hundred million yen." At this deal, her previously bored countenance expresses a hint of interest.

"Five hundred million yen for a speech I'll make about you? Sounds like a deal, Kokoro-san. I'll see you this evening at the cafeteria. Please bring a game with you. She gets up from her seat and bows to me as I silently congratulate myself. Now that's what I call the art of the deal!


End file.
